Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 May 9.
doi: 10.1227/ons.0000000000001614. Online ahead of print.

Trends in Thalamic Stereoelectroencephalography Utilization During Phase II Monitoring in North America: A Survey

Ahmad Alhourani  1   2 , Philip B Ostrov  2 , Jason M Schwalb  3 , Andrew I Yang  4 , Adriana E Palade  5 , Edward F Chang  1 , Joseph S Neimat  2
Affiliations

Trends in Thalamic Stereoelectroencephalography Utilization During Phase II Monitoring in North America: A Survey

Ahmad Alhourani et al. Oper Neurosurg. .

Abstract

Background and objectives: Thalamic neuromodulation is widely used in epilepsy surgery. However, thalamic sampling in invasive monitoring is not consistently used. We aimed to quantify current trends in thalamic stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) utilization.

Methods: We performed a survey of epilepsy neurosurgeons and neurologists to gauge their attitudes and experience with thalamic SEEG. We contacted all members of the American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery and American Epilepsy Society organizations using a mailing list.

Results: We received 40 responses from centers using SEEG, including 31 neurosurgeons and 9 epileptologists. Among these respondents, 65% (26/40) included thalamic targets in their SEEG plans. The most common clinical rationales were to define the seizure network (22/26, 84.6%) or the high probability of targeted structure being a neuromodulation target (22/26, 84.6%). Over half of the respondents who used thalamic SEEG (15/26, 57.6%) endorsed that the findings informed target selection and feasibility of thalamic neuromodulation. The most commonly implanted thalamic targets included centromedian (23/26) and anterior nucleus of the thalamus (ANT) (22/26), followed by pulvinar (19/26).

Conclusion: Thalamic SEEG is a diagnostic tool that is being increasingly used across epilepsy centers. This may be an important tool to support the paradigm shifts occurring in the surgical management of epilepsy.

Keywords: Epilepsy; Neuromodulation; Stereoelectroencephalography; Thalamus.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Tian N, Boring M, Kobau R, Zack MM, Croft JB. Active epilepsy and seizure control in adults—United States, 2013 and 2015. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2018;67(15):437-442.
    1. Nair DR, Laxer KD, Weber PB, et al. Nine-year prospective efficacy and safety of brain-responsive neurostimulation for focal epilepsy. Neurology. 2020;95(9):e1244-e1256.
    1. Salanova V, Sperling MR, Gross RE, et al. The SANTÉ study at 10 years of follow-up: effectiveness, safety, and sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. Epilepsia. 2021;62(6):1306-1317.
    1. Sheikh S, Thompson N, Bingaman W, Gonzalez-Martinez J, Najm I, Jehi L. (Re)Defining success in epilepsy surgery: the importance of relative seizure reduction in patient-reported quality of life. Epilepsia. 2019;60(10):2078-2085.
    1. Piper RJ, Richardson RM, Worrell G, et al. Towards network-guided neuromodulation for epilepsy. Brain. 2022;145(10):3347-3362.

LinkOut - more resources