One of the most difficult tasks for the surgeon during the removal of low-grade gliomas is to identify as precisely as possible the borders between functional and non-functional brain tissue with the aim of obtaining the maximal possible resection which allows to the patient the longer survival. For this purpose, systems for acute extracellular recordings of single neuron and multi-unit activity are considered promising. Here we describe a system to be used with 16 microelectrodes arrays that consists of an autoclavable headstage, a built-in inserter for precise electrode positioning and a system that measures and controls the pressure exerted by the headstage on the brain with a twofold purpose: to increase recording stability and to avoid disturbance of local perfusion which would cause a degradation of the quality of the recording and, eventually, local ischemia. With respect to devices where only electrodes are autoclavable, our design permits the reduction of noise arising from long cable connections preserving at the same time the flexibility and avoiding long-lasting gas sterilization procedures. Finally, size is much smaller and set up time much shorter compared to commercial systems currently in use in surgery rooms, making it easy to consider our system very useful for intra-operatory mapping operations.
