Management of Intracranial Metastatic Disease With Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy

Abstract

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Treatment approaches for metastatic brain tumors continue to evolve, with increasing recent emphasis on focal therapies whenever possible. MRI-guided Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy (LITT) is a minimally invasive surgical option that has broadened the capability of the neurosurgeon in treating difficult-to-treat intracranial lesions. This technology uses image-guided delivery of laser to the target lesion to generate heat and thereby ablate pathological tissue and has expanded the neurosurgical armamentarium for surgical treatment of brain metastases. In this study, we describe the indications for LITT in the management of intracranial metastatic disease and report our institutional experience with LITT.

Keywords

• laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT)
• intracranial metastatic disease
• brain metastases
• overall survival (OS)
• thermal-damage-threshold (TDT)