Functional magnetic resonance imaging may be considered medically necessary as a complementary test in the preoperative evaluation of patients with refractory epilepsy or brain tumors who are candidates for neurosurgery when: (1) the lesion is in close proximity to an eloquent area of the brain (eg, controlling verbal or motor function); and (2) testing is expected to have an important role in assessing the spatial relation between the lesion and eloquent brain area.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging is considered investigational for all other applications.
