WHEN LESS MEANS MORE MRI-Guided Laser Ablation
Minimally Invasive Brain Surgery
DOES YOUR MEDICAL CONDITION REQUIRE BRAIN SURGERY?
The prospect of having a surgical procedure performed on the brain can be frightening for you as a patient. The experts at your hospital can help put your mind at ease with today’s minimally invasive MRI-guided laser ablation technology. A less invasive procedure can result in more comfort for you.
WHAT IS MRI-GUIDED LASER ABLATION?
In the operating room, your surgeon will create a very small hole (3.2 mm) in your skull, through which a laser cathether is delivered to reach the brain tissue that needs to be treated. Your surgeon will perform the laser placement through a so-called stereotactic procedure, where scans of the brain are used to allow surgeons to pinpoint exactly the area of the brain that needs treatment. Once the catheter is in place, the procedure continues under MRIguidance. Laser energy is delivered to the targeted brain tissue to heat it up and destroy it. Your surgeon can control the amount and duration of laser energy that is delivered to the tissue because he is monitoring real-time MRI images. The MRI images show tissue temperature changes and to what extent the tissue is affected. Additionally, temperature safety limits can be set to protect critical brain structures. This allows the diseased tissue to be destroyed with a high level of precision and control, leaving healthy tissue intact.1-5
Proven Technology
- Over 3,000 neurosurgical procedures have been performed in over 80 centers in the United States.
- The technology is now approved in Europe and Canada for the ablation of soft tissue in neurological procedures.
Your Benifits
- The procedure has a minimally-invasive character, requiring only a small incision and opening in your skull
- Minimal sutures are required; typically you will only need a one-stitch suture 6-7
- Due to the minimally-invasive nature of the procedure you will likely have little or no hair removed
- You will likely be able to leave the hospital after a short stay - most patients are discharged after a shorter stay in the hospital compared to patients that have open surgical procedures 8-13
- Due to the minimally-invasive nature of the procedure you will experience minimal scarring at the surgical site.
Potential side effects associated with MRI-guided laser ablation, though not necessarily associated with the use of this device, include: minor bleeding, hematoma without neurological compromise, infection, and cerebral edema.
Talk to your physician to find out if you are a candidate for
Visualse<sup>TM</sup> MRI-Guided Laser Ablation.
References:
1
McNichols et al. Int. J. Hyperthermia, vol. 20, no. 1 (February 2004), pp. 45–56.
2
McNichols et al. Lasers in Surgery and Medicine 34:48–55 (2004).
3
Carpentier et al. Neurosurgery 63[ONS Suppl 1]:ONS21–ONS29, 2008.
4
Carpentier et al. Lasers Surg Med. 2011 Dec;43(10):943-50.
5
Attaar et al. Operative Neurosurgery 11:554–563, 2015.
6
Jethwa, et al. J Neurosurg Peds 2011; 8:468
7
Torres-Reveron, et al. J Neurooncol 2013; 113:495
8
Jethwa et al. Neurosurgery. 2012; 133-44; 144-5.
9
Kang et al.. Epilepsia. 2016; 325-34.
10
Lewis et al. Epilepsia. 2015; 56(10):1590-8.
11
Patel et al. J Neurosurg 2016; doi: 10.3171/2015.7.
12
Wilfong AA, Curry DJ. Epilepsia. 2013;109-14.
13
Willie et al. Neurosurgery. 2014; 569-84.