Understanding brain tumors
There are more than 100 distinct types of primary brain tumors, each characterized by varying symptoms, treatment possibilities, and outcomes. Brain tumors, unlike many other cancers, can have long-lasting and significant impacts on a person’s physical, mental, and emotional health.
How doctors treat brain tumors can vary based on the symptoms you have, where the tumor is located, how fast it grows, how much of it can be removed with surgery, and what the tumor looks like under a microscope.
Explore a minimally invasive alternative for treating brain tumors.
How Visualase™ laser ablation works
Visualase™ MRI-guided laser ablation may make it easier for neurosurgeons to gain access to some tumors that are located close to sensitive structures or deep in the skull, where they would be hard to reach and remove safely through traditional open brain surgery. The procedure is minimally invasive, and is monitored in real-time with MRI.
Your surgeon may offer Visualase™ laser ablation as a surgical option if you have the following:
- You have a brain tumor that is hard to reach
- You are not a candidate for open brain surgery
- Reoccurring tumors
Visualase™ laser ablation is not appropriate for the following:
- Patients who have medical conditions that are contraindicated for MRI
- Patients who have implanted medical devices that are contraindicated for MRI
- Patients whose physician determines that laser-induced thermal therapy (LITT) is not acceptable
- Patients for which invasive surgical procedures in the brain is not appropriate
What are the benefits of Visualase™ MRI-guided laser ablation?
Visualase™ is an MRI-guided laser system used to perform a minimally invasive surgical procedure called laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT).
Compared to open brain surgery , Visualase™ MRI-guided laser ablation offers patients:
- A significantly shorter hospital stay1-8
- A small incision (4 mm) with little scaring
- Minimal hair shaving
- Decreased risk of infection9-10
- High patient satisfaction when they receive surgical intervention using the Visualase™ system1,11,12
Proven technology
FDA
cleared
to ablate epileptic foci, radiation necrosis, and tumors in the brain.
Over 11,000
neurosurgical procedures have been performed globally and are offered in over 110 centers in the United States.
Tried and true
technology, Visualase™ laser ablation has been serving patients for more than 17 years.