The Stentrode is the commercial name for Synchron's Endovascular Neural Interface (ENI) — a self-expanding nitinol stent with embedded electrode contacts, designed to be delivered via standard endovascular catheterization to a cerebral blood vessel adjacent to the motor cortex.

Design and Delivery

The Stentrode is implanted via a minimally invasive procedure:

  1. A catheter is inserted into the jugular vein at the neck (standard for most endovascular procedures)
  2. The catheter is navigated under fluoroscopic guidance up through the sigmoid sinus and into the superior sagittal sinus (SSS) — a large venous drainage channel running along the top of the brain
  3. The Stentrode stent is deployed in the SSS segment adjacent to the primary motor cortex (M1)
  4. Electrode contacts on the expanded stent touch the vessel wall and record neural signals through the ~0.5mm vessel wall from adjacent cortical tissue
  5. Leads run subcutaneously from the stent to a transmitter device implanted in the chest (similar to a pacemaker pocket)

No scalp incision, no craniotomy, and no cortical tissue penetration are required. The procedure takes approximately 2 hours.

Signal Characteristics

The Stentrode records at a fundamentally different signal level than intracortical arrays:

  • Signals pass through the vessel wall and dura, attenuating high-frequency components
  • Primarily captures local field potentials and broad multi-unit activity rather than single-neuron action potentials
  • Motor band LFP modulation (~300-1000 Hz threshold crossings) is the primary decoding signal
  • Signal quality is lower than intracortical recording but appears more stable over time (no tissue penetration = no glial scar on electrodes)

Clinical Status

The Stentrode received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation in August 2020. The SWITCH US feasibility trial enrolled 6 patients at US sites. The COMMAND pivotal trial was initiated in 2024, targeting 55 patients to support an FDA marketing authorization application.

All 10 implanted patients (Australia + US) have demonstrated device-enabled computer control for communication. One US patient famously posted on Twitter using the Stentrode. No serious device-related adverse events have been reported across all implants.