C0167 - WHITE MATTER RELATIONSHIPS EXAMINED BY TRANSILLUMINATION IN TRANSCORTICAL APPROACHES TO THE ATRIUM
1Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia, Valencia, Spain. 2Hospital Beneficiencia Portuguesa, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Objectives: To examine the relationships of white matter tracts, specially the optic radiations, by transillumination technique and to discuss its findings in relation to the transcortical approaches to the atrium.
Methods: We studied 16 cerebral adult hemispheres of 8 brains that had been fixed in formalin solution for 60 days. After removal arachnoid membrane, the hemispheres were frozen, and the Klingler technique was used for dissection under magnification (× 6 to × 40). We used transillumination technique by using a lamp lighting the ventricles.
Results: In the parietal lobe the Optic Radiations are located deeper to the intraparietal sulcus in the junction to the poscentral sulcus. The mean distance between the cortical surface and the optic radiations at the level of the atrium was 22 ± 2 mm. The overall surface of the atrium lateral wall seen by transillumination was 14 × 12 mm.
Conclusions: The white matter fiber dissection reveals the tridimensional intrinsic brain structure. The use of transillumination technique helps to understand the fibers relationships to the atrium using small windows to approach this region.