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Using a Hole Smaller Than a Dime, Surgeons Successfully Remove Tumor from Brain

by Kathy Jones on Nov 10 2013 10:14 PM

 Using a Hole Smaller Than a Dime, Surgeons Successfully Remove Tumor from Brain
In a major achievement, neurosurgeons were able to remove a lesion from a man's brain through a tube inserted into a hole that was smaller than a dime.
Gavin Britz, MBBCh, MPH, FAANS, chairman of neurosurgery at Houston Methodist Neurological Institute, used a minimally-invasive technique to remove a vascular lesion from deep within Ryan Vincent's brain, the first to use this technique in the region.

Traditionally, vascular lesions or brain tumors that are located deep within the brain can cause damage just by surgical removal.

Britz said that with this new approach, they can navigate through millions of important brain fibers and tracts to access deep areas of the brain where these benign tumors or hemorrhages are located with minimal injury to normal brain, asserting that the 44-year-old patient's surgery took less than an hour.

Houston Methodist neurosurgeons Britz and David Baskin, M.D., director of the Kenneth R. Peak Brain and Pituitary Tumor Center, are using this "six-pillar approach" that encompasses the latest technology in minimally-invasive surgeries-mapping of the brain; navigating the brain like a GPS system; safely accessing the brain and tumor/lesion; using high-end optics for visualization; successfully removing the tumor without disrupting tissues around it; and directed therapy using tissue collected for evaluation that can then be used for personalized treatments.

Source-ANI


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