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.”
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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.”
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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.
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Article Excerpt
“It’s so much easier on the patient than a conventional procedure”
Posted: Apr 20, 2009 5:59 PM CDT Updated: Apr 28, 2009 11:51 AM CDT
By Carolyn Roy, KSLA News 12
(KSLA) – A neurosurgeon has taken brain surgery for the removal of tumors to a whole new level, finding a way to (ablate) tumors, with much less risk. A … Louisiana woman was the first patient in the U.S. to have the procedure done.
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“Lasers used in keyhole surgery in brain” – Agence France-Presse
Paris, France August 29th, 2008 – Visualase technology used successfully in brain tumors, as reported by AFP and the Telegraph (UK).
AFP | Telegraph
Paris hospital hosts pioneering laser brain surgery
Saturday 30 August 2008 – A French team of neurosurgeons claims top have successfully tested a combination of new techniques, including fibre-optic lasers.
France24
FDA Statement