I've been struggling to get consistent results with distal middle cerebral artery occlusion (dMCAO), and I think my problem is that I'm not always finding the MCA. I mostly follow the JOVE protocol, but their image is so clear whereas the skull is opaque for me. My PI tells me to look for a Y-shaped bifurcation, but I don't always see that so I just look for a large red "line" running down the area exposed by the temporal muscle. I'm very much a visual learner so any references with pictures would be helpful.

It has occurred to me that the surgery is also failing because I'm not actually occluding the MCA, but the JoVE protocol says you don't need to pinch with the electrocoagulation. I'm also trying to avoid bleeding.