Neuroendoscopic basket dilation technique for the fenestration of the ventricular wall or intracranial...

A basket dilation technique has been developed for fenestration of ventricular or cystic walls, using a basket type widely used in the urological field to collect renal or ureteric stones. This technique allows deep-seated structures to be visualized directly through the expanded basket during dilation and the thinnest part of ventricular wall to easily be pierced, cut, and dilated. Fine control can be exerted over expansion pressure through the hand piece directly connected to the basket tip. In addition, the basket can be rotated to cut the floating tissue that must be removed around the stoma. This basket dilation technique is safer than the balloon inflation technique currently used because it allows visualization of deep-seated structures that cannot be seen through the balloon, and should therefore prove useful in third ventriculostomy, plasty of the sylvian aqueduct, and fenestration of intracranial cystic lesions.