LITT study by Dr. Carpentier makes the front cover of American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery:
Lasers in Surgery and Medicine
Laser thermal therapy: Real-time MRI-guided and computer-controlled procedures for metastatic brain tumors.
December 2011
Volume 43, Issue 10
Pages 939–1014
Source: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/lsm.v43.10/issuetoc
In the news – article excerpt
The New Wave, June 18, 2010
by Lynette Wilson
Shabbar F. Danish, M.D., Director, Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery and Assistant Professor at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), used the Visualase, Inc., laser thermal ablation technique to operate on a patient with a recurring brain tumor after two previous surgeries and radiation did not permanently destroy the growth. The technology is the latest addition to RWJUH and RWJMS’s growing expertise in the division of neuroscience. Dr. Danish specializes in the latest in stereotactic neurosurgery, which involves targeting small areas in the brain with techniques used (in) everything from Parkinson’s disease to brain tumors.
Article
CourierPostOnline.com
Three-minute surgery
By JEFF WEBER • GANNETT NJ • August 3, 2010
Dr. Shabbar Danish, the director of stereotactic and functional neurosurgery and an assistant professor at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, and his team perform laser thermal ablation on Susanna Denude’s rare brain tumor on July 6.
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick has become the first hospital in the country to perform laser-assisted surgery on an intracranial ependymoma, a tumor that grows from the cells that line the ventricles in the brain.
Dr. Shabbar F. Danish and his neuroscience team successfully completed this surgery on Susanna Denude of Riverdale on July 6 in just three minutes — and Denude was awake the entire time. She even was in and out of the hospital in 24 hours.
“This is a tool for patients with tumors who have been told they do not have other options,” said Danish, the director of stereotactic and functional neurosurgery and an assistant professor at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. “I felt that she was a good candidate for this based on what her tumor looked like.”
Press Release
New Brunswick, NJ – A leading neurosurgeon has performed the nation’s first laser-assisted brain surgery for a specific type of resistant brain tumor using technology so advanced that the patient went home the next day.
Shabbar F. Danish, M.D., Director, Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery and Assistant Professor at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), used the Visualase, Inc., laser-assisted thermal ablation technique to operate on a patient with a recurring brain tumor after two previous surgeries and radiation did not permanently destroy the growth.
The technology is the latest addition to RWJUH and RWJMS’s growing expertise in the division of neuroscience. Dr. Danish specializes in the latest in stereotactic neurosurgery, which involves targeting small areas in the brain with techniques used (in) everything from Parkinson’s disease to brain tumors.
Article Excerpt
Novel approach is minimally invasive and precise
04:20 PM CDT on Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Wendy Rigby / KENS 5
Perez has had one surgery to remove the tumor, but now the cancer has returned. This time, Dr. John Floyd, a U.T. Health Science Center neurosurgeon, is trying something different.
In an operating room at St. Luke’s Baptist Hospital, the doctor secured an anchor in the outside of the skull. Then, using what’s called neuro-navigation for precision, he slid a catheter several inches inside the head. That catheter houses a laser that can zap the cells growing out of control and threatening Perez’ life.
Lester Beck was the first patient to undergo laser brain surgery at MUSC and is just the 30th person in the world to have it done.
Ray Turner, 33, a Medical University of South Carolina neurosurgeon, performed the first laser brain surgery in the hospital’s history, only the 10th performed in the United States and the 30th in the world. “It’s exhilarating,” he said Thursday. “This is what we want to do in medicine, stay on the cutting edge.”
Former Graduate Student and Current Assistant Professor in the Department of Imaging Physics at UTMDACC, Dr. R. Jason Stafford is highlighted in The Messenger. (Reprinted with permissions from The Messenger, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center)
Thursday, April 2, 2009
By Sarah Petrie
Above, from left: Kamran Ahrar, M.D., and R. Jason Stafford, Ph.D., discuss an upcoming spinal surgery that will use the Visualase technology. They’ll be able to watch the tumor (ablate) in near real time during the procedure. Depending on where the tumor is located, the patient may or may not be awake during the procedure.
History books show that surgeons began removing cancerous tumors as early as the second century. Zoom ahead to 2009, take away the scalpels, scars and side effects that typically accompany surgery, and trade them for a tiny laser beam… It sounds like science fiction, but our researchers and clinicians are among the first in the nation to investigate a new procedure that does just this … and more.
FDA Statement