# Concept for intrathecal delivery of brain recording and stimulation device

## TL;DR

This paper proposes a new minimally invasive pathway for delivering brain therapies through the ventricular system, offering access to deep brain areas within the blood-brain barrier.

## Contribution

The study identifies the foramen of Magendie as a novel anatomical route for therapeutic delivery to the brain, extending the intrathecal pathway.

## Key findings

- A self-expanding electrical recording device was successfully tested on human brain samples to navigate the ventricular system.
- The proposed pathway allows access to limbic brain structures while remaining within the blood-brain barrier.
- The concept is preliminary but suggests a promising route for future therapeutic and diagnostic brain interventions.

## Abstract

Neurological disorders are common, yet many neurological diseases don't have efficacious treatments. The protected nature of the brain both anatomically and physiologically through the blood brain barrier (BBB) make it exceptionally hard to access. Recent advancements in interventional approaches, like the Stentrode™, have opened the possibility of using the cerebral vasculature as a highway for minimally invasive therapeutic delivery to the brain. Despite the immense success that the Stentrode™ has faced recently, it is limited to major cerebral vasculature and exists outside the BBB, making drug eluting configurations largely ineffective. The present study seeks to identify a separate anatomical pathway for therapeutic delivery to the deep brain using the ventricular system. The intrathecal route, in which drug pumps and spinal cord stimulators are delivered through a lumbar puncture, is a well-established route for delivering therapies to the spinal cord as high as C1. The present study identifies an extension of this anatomical pathway through the foramen of Magendie and into the brains ventricular system. To test this pathway, a narrow self-expanding electrical recording device was manufactured and its potential to navigate the ventricular system was assessed on human anatomical brain samples. While the results of this paper are largely preliminary and a substantial amount of safety and efficacy data is needed, this paper identifies an important anatomical pathway for delivery of therapeutic and diagnostics tools to the brain that is minimally invasive, can access limbic structures, and is within the BBB.