Israel:
Noninvasive Brain Surgery
|
Medical
history was made at Rambam Health Care Campus last week when an Israeli
essential-tremor patient successfully underwent targeted surgical
ablation of deep-seated brain tissue through an intact skull, a radical
therapy made possible by the marriage of MRI-guidance and
ultrasound-ablation technologies.
It has been years since
Mr. Sami Zangi, 73, of Jerusalem, could bring a cup of coffee to his
lips, tie his shoelaces, or most frustrating of all for this hardware
store owner, use the simplest tools. A week ago, when Mr. Zangi asked to
communicate something in writing to his Rambam doctors, his hand shook
so badly that he could only produce an illegible scrawl.
Mr. Zangi suffers from
essential tremor, a slowly progressive movement disorder whose cause
lies deep within the brain. Last week, after MRI-guided Focused
Ultrasound Surgery (FUS) at Rambam Hospital, Mr. Zangi got up from the
MRI table tremor-free, smiled, and again requested paper and a pen.
"Remember what I tried to tell you a week ago?" he asked. Surrounded by
his wife and family, he wrote in a steady and beautiful hand, "If you
will it, it is no dream" (ed. note: Theodor Herzl).
First Time Ever in Israel: Noninvasive Brain Surgery |
ExAblate Neuro is the
trade name for the noninvasive surgical treatment that Mr. Zangi
underwent. The procedure, which targets and ablates brain tissue through
an intact skull, has been made possible by the marriage of MRI-guidance
and ultrasound-ablation expertise.
The
patient spent three calm, wide awake hours inside an MRI machine,
communicating with and monitored by Senior Neurologist Dr. Ilana
Schlesinger, Head of the Movement Disorders and Parkinson's Center,
while Prof. Menashe Zaaroor, Director of the Department of Neurosurgery,
used a computer mouse to direct 1,000 ultrasonic beams to the thalamic
focal point targeted for thermal ablation.
The pioneering technology was developed in Israel by InSightec. The company was founded in 1999 with the visionary idea of applying ultrasound expertise to noninvasive surgery. "We are the only company with the technology to provide noninvasive ultrasound therapy in the brain," says InSightec Vice President of Research & Development Mr. Eyal Zadicario.
"It's
a brilliant idea," said Prof. Dorit Goldsher, Head of MRI at Rambam.
"The brain is enveloped with hard bone, and the idea is to operate
without touching the bone. It's a dream come true."
Neurosurgeon
Prof. Michael Schwartz of the University of Toronto and Sunnybrook
Health Sciences Centre flew to Israel in order to observe the procedure
at Rambam. He has performed the same procedure on six patients at
Sunnybrook using earlier-generation software by InSightec and wanted to
be present at the newest software's world debut. "In essential tremor,
the neurons are too active; they fire in symmetry at several cycles per
second," he explained. "We know that making a lesion interrupts the
circuit. It's like cutting a wire; we're cutting the neural pathway that
causes the tremor."
Dr.
Schlesinger expressed the elation in the MRI control room at Mr.
Zangi's immediate, noticeable improvement in tremor and return of
functionality. "The fact that an Israeli company has developed
this technology, and that we have performed this procedure on an Israeli
patient at Rambam, shows what we can achieve as a nation if we pursue
our dreams."
Donate to this amazing medical center: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FzB2FASis&feature=youtu.be
No comments:
Post a Comment