Doctors use robot to do brain surgery

Doctors in Calgary, Alberta, have made medical history: they used a robot to remove a tumor from a woman’s brain while they watched what they were doing with an MRI scanner. Here are Dr. Sutherland and Ms. Nickason with the machine.

“Doctors used remote controls and an imaging screen, similar to a video game, to guide the two-armed robot through Paige Nickason’s brain during the nine-hour surgery Monday.

“Surgical instruments acting as the hands of the robot -called NeuroArm - provided surgeons with the tools needed to successfully remove the egg-shaped tumour….

“‘Paige’s brain surgery represents a technical achievement in the use of image-guided robotic technology to remove a relatively complex brain tumour,’ said Dr. Garnette Sutherland, professor of neurosurgery at the University of Calgary faculty of medicine and NeuroArm team leader.

“NeuroArm has the distinct advantage of being able to move in smaller increments than a surgeon’s hand, Sutherland said.

“Typically, the human hand can steady itself and move in increments of one or two millimetres. NeuroArm can move in increments of 50 microns. [A micron is 1/1000 of a millimetre.]…

“NeuroArm can operate in the brain in a way that is less invasive and more delicate than a surgeon’s hands.”

You can read more about the NeuroArm here and here.