The RCH Neuroscience Advanced Clinical Imaging Service (NACIS)
Central nervous system disorders, such as brain tumours and epileptic disorders, are among the leading causes of childhood chronic illness-related morbidity and mortality worldwide.
Over the last decade, The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) have worked to deliver an advanced neuroimaging program that has revolutionised neurosurgical practice and improved surgical outcomes for children with epilepsy and selected brain tumours.
This resulted in the establishment of Neuroscience Advanced Clinical Imaging Service (NACIS) under the Department of Neurosurgery at the RCH.
The Neuroscience Advanced Clinical Imaging Service (NACIS) is a one-of-a-kind service at The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH). Through advanced brain imaging technology and image processing techniques, this service has been able to help make the invisible appear visible, going further than commercial magnetic resonance imaging.
Thanks to the support of the Good Friday Appeal, NACIS is improving long term outcomes and quality of life for young patients with brain tumours and epileptic disorders.
The NACIS team can help to identify particular lesions in the brains of patients with epilepsy, which were unable to be accurately detected before the establishment of the service. Across 2024, NACIS has helped clinicians deliver personalised and safer brain surgery to over 120 children.
NACIS uses sophisticated image processing techniques to produce a detailed map of a child’s brain vessels, functional brain regions and the underlying nerve fibre connections, which control functions like language, vision and movement.
They also use the technology to assist surgeons in identifying safe “surgical road maps” for precise brain mapping and surgical execution, as well as assessing patients’ post-surgery to ensure the best possible outcomes The map is used by surgeons to precisely plan and perform their operations, allowing them to avoid injuring these critical functional brain structures, thus ensure the best possible functional outcomes.
NACIS is a one of kind service, working to perform more high-risk and complex surgical cases, and in selected cases, offering surgery as a treatment to children previously considered inoperable.
Last updated March 2025
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