Preoperative Visualization of Cortical Veins by 3D Reconstruction of Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI): Correlation with Intraoperative Findings

The topography of the superficial cortical veins shows a high interindividual variation. Brain pathologies may cause additional displacement. We aimed to preoperatively visualize the exact anatomic localization of the veins with regards to the lesion and the planned neurosurgical resections. We included 23 patients with MRI-documented brain lesions in the study. Structural MRI (1.5 T) was acquired with a slice thickness of 1.2mm and an in-plane resolution of 1.0mm. In addition, contrast-enhanced venous MRA was recorded using 64 slices with 2mm thickness. Interactive image registration of both datasets was perfor…