Assessment of Safety of a Fully Implanted Endovascular Brain-Computer Interface for Severe Paralysis in 4 Patients: The SWITCH Study

The 60-second view

What problem?

Implanted BCIs had required a craniotomy; whether electrodes could be delivered safely through a vein was unknown.

What did they do?

Placed a stent-electrode array in the superior sagittal sinus via the jugular vein in people with severe upper-limb paralysis and followed them for a year.

What changed?

Established the first prospective human safety data for the endovascular route, with home use for computer control.

Why does it matter?

Surgical access is one of the main limits on how many people could ever receive a BCI. This is the evidence base for the least invasive implanted route.

Method

Participants

Five enrolled (four with ALS, one with primary lateral sclerosis); four analysed

Interface

Endovascular stent-electrode array with a subcutaneous unit

Signal

Field potentials recorded through the vessel wall

Task

Computer control at home; safety follow-up for 12 months

Decoder

Detection of attempted-movement commands

Results

4

Participants implanted

Five enrolled

0

Serious adverse events at 12 months

No vessel occlusion or device migration

233 Hz

Mean signal bandwidth

Stable throughout the study in all four

≥5

Movement types decoded offline

Strength of evidencePeer reviewed, single-centre, prospective; five enrolled, four included in analyses.

Figures are quoted from the published abstract and were checked on 3 Oct 2026.

Limitations

• Very small cohort.
• Low channel count limits the range of commands.

What this could enable

A BCI procedure that existing neurointerventional teams can perform.