Potential of focused ultrasound in epilepsy surgery

The minimally invasive nature of FUS makes it an excellent candidate technology for epilepsy surgery. The limitation of currently available FUS systems is that the lesion must be deep in the brain to avoid bone heating. Thus, it is best suited for “subcortical” epilepsies, i.e. epilepsy resulting from lesions below the cortex. It is also desirable that the lesion be relatively small volume to avoid long treatment times and not be in eloquent cortex. Previous reports of seizure freedom after laser ablation of hypothalamic hamartomas and radiofrequency ablation of single subcortical nodules have been reported. Thus, we designed the Focused Ultrasound Subcortical Epilepsy (FUSE) study with these principles in mind.