Purely endoscopic and endoscope-assisted approaches to lesions of the third ventricle in pediatric age-a technical collection

BACKGROUND: One of the main difficulties in third ventricle surgery is its deep and central location within the brain, surrounded by many eloquent neurovascular structures. Such anatomical environment obviously makes it very hard to safely approach and excise lesions in there.

METHODS: The introduction of the surgical microscope into the neurosurgical field undoubtedly played an important and pivotal role in improving the surgical results and increasing the safety of operations in and around the third ventricle. Although the surgical microscope remained the gold standard of intraoperative visualization for many decades, the advent of endoscopes revolutionized surgery of the third ventricle. Neuroendoscopic procedures for lesions of the third ventricle encompass a greatly variable array of endochannel, endoscope-assisted and endoscope-controlled techniques.

CONCLUSION: In this collection on purely endoscopic and endoscope-assisted approaches to lesions of the third ventricle in pediatric age, the readership is presented with a selected group of these operations performed by experts in the field, shedding light mainly on their technical aspects and surgical pearls. The text description in each article is supplemented by a surgical video.