Endovascular BCI
Brain-computer interfaces delivered by catheter through blood vessels and deployed next to the target brain region, with no open brain surgery. Synchron's Stentrode has been in human trials since 2020, and three Chinese programmes are now on the public record.
Overview
An endovascular BCI is guided through a blood vessel from the neck and deployed in or against a vessel next to the brain region it records from. The procedure resembles placing a stent and avoids a craniotomy. The trade-off is lower-resolution signals: the Stentrode, developed by Synchron, records local field potentials through the wall of the superior sagittal sinus over the motor cortex.
Synchron
Synchron’s first human implant came in the SWITCH trial at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 2020. Its US COMMAND feasibility study implanted six people with severe upper-limb paralysis and reported positive 12-month safety and efficacy results in September 2024, with no device-related serious adverse events resulting in death or permanent increased disability. Synchron has been discussing a pivotal trial design with the FDA. The FOCUS-AUS trial of a next-generation Stentrode began in Australia on 22 May 2026 and plans to enrol ten people with motor neurone disease. The new device has no external module near the skin and supports up to 16 command outputs, up from two.
China
A Nankai University team led by Duan Feng announced a first-in-human implant on 22 June 2025 in a 67-year-old with paralysis after a stroke, using a stent electrode entered through neck vessels. Duan Wanru of Xuanwu Hospital in Beijing said in August 2026 that an experienced surgeon can position a Chinese endovascular device in as little as 10 minutes; Synchron’s deployment takes on the order of 20 minutes. StairMed and a Chinese Academy of Sciences team unveiled an endovascular programme in December 2025, now in sheep testing.
Why it matters
The scaling argument for endovascular BCIs rests on the procedure: it draws on catheter skills that interventional teams already use for stents. Synchron’s pivotal trial design and published patient counts from the Chinese programmes are the next markers of whether that argument holds.