Resounding success for 1st International Workshop on Navigated Brain Stimulation in Neurosurgery
The First International Workshop on Navigated Brain Stimulation (NBS) in Neurosurgery was held in Berlin, October 10-11, 2009. The organizers´ modest goal of sharing experiences of NBS amongst a small group of colleagues was eclipsed by the extraordinarily high scientific level of the presentations given by the guest speakers. In this first event of its kind, the level of interest and participation also exceeded expectations with over 70 people, including 53 neurosurgeons from 12 countries across Europe attending. The Workshop program covered:
* Presurgical mapping in brain tumor and epilepsy with fMRI, DCS, MEG and NBS
* NBS in chronic cerebral ischemia and stroke
* NBS in chronic pain therapy
The lead organizer, Dr.Thomas Picht (Neurochirurgische Klinik, Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Berlin) commented, "This was the most productive conference of its kind that I have ever attended. It is now becoming clear that NBS will have a significant role to play not only in pre-surgical mapping for central tumor patients, but also in many other areas of clinical neurosurgery."
The organizing committee has decided to publish an abstract of the meeting presentations, and looks forward to sharing it with all participants and others with an interest in brain mapping in clinical neurosurgery. Nexstim Oy has kindly offered to sponsor the publication. About non-invasive and invasive direct cortical stimulation Direct electrical cortical stimulation (DCS) is a well-established invasive technique in neurosurgery for the examination of cortical function following craniotomy.
There has been a search for a non-invasive tool which would also help in preoperative planning. Functional MRI "fMRI", which relies on indirect hemodynamic responses, had shown early promise but has not fulfilled all expectations in the clinic. However, the recently-introduced NBS, a direct but completely non-invasive approach to patient-tailored functional diagnostics, has proven to be well-suited to clinical practice already today.
NBS System is CE-marked. Caution: in the United States the NBS System is limited by Federal law to investigational use.
About Nexstim
Nexstim was founded in 2000 to commercialize Navigated Brain Stimulation: the
combination of MRI-guided transranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and EMG/EEG
measurement. The company has delivered over 40 systems to hospitals in Europe,
Japan, Taiwan and USA. Since 2007, Nexstim has raised EUR 14 million in new
financing, led by European venture capital investors HealthCap and LSP. See
