Brain surgery tagged posts

Measurement in pig’s brain tissue. Credit: Image courtesy of Investigación y Desarrollo

Removing a brain tumor is a delicate task, if not done properly it can have catastrophic consequences, such as brain damage, motor impairment or failure in controlling a vital organ function. In order to make this work more precise, the Mexican David Oliva Uribe designed, at Brussels, Belgium, a “smart scalpel” that determines whether an area is healthy or tumorous. The device is designed to be used in the operating room when a brain tumor is already diagnosed and the only solution is to remove it. The tool has the size of a scalpel, but the tip is spherical and of a diameter <1 millimeter.

The prototype was tested in artificial tumors and brain tissue from pigs, where excellent results were obtained a...

To operate on the brain, doctors need to see fine details on a small scale. A tiny camera that could produce 3D images from inside the brain would help surgeons see more intricacies of the tissue they are handling and lead to faster, safer procedures.

An endoscope with such a camera is being developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. MARVEL, ie Multi Angle Rear Viewing Endoscopic tooL, has been honored this week with the Outstanding Technology Development award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium. An endoscope is a device that examines the interior of a body part.

“With one of the world’s smallest 3D cameras, MARVEL is designed for minimally nvasive brain surgery,” said Harish Manohara, principal investigator of the project at JPL...