Maintenance Notice

Due to necessary scheduled maintenance, the JMIR Publications website will be unavailable from Wednesday, July 01, 2020 at 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM EST. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Who will be affected?

Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Perioperative Medicine

Date Submitted: Nov 17, 2024
Date Accepted: Jan 19, 2026

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Comparison Between Ultrasound and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Measurements of the Optic Nerve Sheath Diameter in Patients Undergoing Intracranial Surgery: Prospective Observational Single-Center Study

Giraldo M, Lopera LM, Balbaa A, Gonzalez N, Cesar Zamper R, Mayich M, Boulton M

Comparison Between Ultrasound and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Measurements of the Optic Nerve Sheath Diameter in Patients Undergoing Intracranial Surgery: Prospective Observational Single-Center Study

JMIR Perioper Med 2026;9:e67480

DOI: 10.2196/67480

PMID: 41996532

PMCID: 13089628

Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.

COMPARISON BETWEEN ULTRASOUND AND MRI MEASUREMENTS OF THE OPTIC NERVE SHEATH DIAMETER IN PATIENTS UNDERGOING INTRACRANIAL SURGERY: A prospective observational single-center study.

  • Mauricio Giraldo; 
  • Luz Maria Lopera; 
  • Aly Balbaa; 
  • Nelson Gonzalez; 
  • Rafffael Cesar Zamper; 
  • Michael Mayich; 
  • Mel Boulton

ABSTRACT

Background:

The cystic nature and easy accessibility of the eye make ocular ultrasound a valuable tool for thorough assessment. High-frequency ultrasound transducers allow for clear visualizing of normal eye anatomy and detecting various intraocular issues such as tumours, retinal detachment, vitreous hemorrhage, foreign bodies, and vascular malformations.

Objective:

We are investigating and analyzing the relationship and potential bias between ultrasound—and MRI-based measurements of the ONSD. Our main objective is to determine how both techniques can be used together to assess the ONSD and ICP during the perioperative period. We also aim to establish how different these measurements could be from the MRI gold standard when performed by a well-trained anesthesiologist using ultrasound.

Methods:

We conducted a prospective observational study of 50 adult patients scheduled for intracranial surgery at LHSC (University Hospital) between July 2021 and May 2023. The study focused on patients undergoing supratentorial brain tumour resections.

Results:

The optic nerve sheath diameter measurements obtained through the ultrasound were positively correlated with those measured by magnetic resonance. The average optic nerve sheath diameter in the right eye measured 5.940 mm (±0.986) using ultrasound and 6.284 mm (±0.939) with radiological assessment, with differences ranging from -1 mm to 1.8 mm. In the left eye, the average optic nerve sheath diameter was higher, recorded at 6.146 mm (±0.935) with ultrasound and 6.298 mm (±0.860) with radiological assessment, and the differences ranged from -1 mm to 1.7 mm.

Conclusions:

The ONSD measurement is a valuable, easy-to-learn, non-invasive method that can be crucial in the acute management of patients with neurological conditions before surgery, and our research shows that ultrasound can provide a reliable means for continuous monitoring and prompt intervention, especially when intraoperative fluctuations in intracranial pressure are a significant concern. Clinical Trial: None


 Citation

Please cite as:

Giraldo M, Lopera LM, Balbaa A, Gonzalez N, Cesar Zamper R, Mayich M, Boulton M

Comparison Between Ultrasound and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Measurements of the Optic Nerve Sheath Diameter in Patients Undergoing Intracranial Surgery: Prospective Observational Single-Center Study

JMIR Perioper Med 2026;9:e67480

DOI: 10.2196/67480

PMID: 41996532

PMCID: 13089628

Download PDF


Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.

© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.