Paris hospital hosts pioneering laser brain surgery
In a ground-breaking advance, French neurosurgeons on Friday said they had successfully treated brain tumours through ultra-keyhole surgery, using a tiny fibre-optic laser to destroy cancerous cells.
Alexandre Carpentier of the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in Paris said the exploit was "a world-first" in its use of multiple advanced techniques and of local anaesthesia rather than general sedation.
So far, eight volunteers have been treated in the pilot programme, launched December 2006, Carpentier told AFP.
"They were suffering from metastasing brain tumours caused by various cancers, mainly lung and breast cancer that failed to respond to conventional treatment and were otherwise inoperable," he said.
Doctors had given the volunteers only three months left to live, on average.
Under the pioneering technique, a minute hole three millimetres (0.12 of an inch) wide was drilled into the skull, allowing the surgeon to introduce a water-cooled fibre-optic laser into the brain.
The device was gently guided towards the tumour area with the help of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner.
Every three seconds, a computer workstation calculated the temperature at the area being burned by the laser to ensure that there was no dangerous overheating and to confirm that only tumorous cells were being destroyed.
The patient received only a local anaesthetic, remaining conscious in order to be able to speak to the medical team to help verify that cerebral functions were not being harmed.
However, "the patients feels nothing during the operation and generally can leave hospital 14 hours later, the evening or the morning after the operation," the surgeon said.
The results are "conclusive," said Carpentier.
Treating the patients completely requires two or more bouts of surgery, and there had been no cases of cerebral bruising or epilepsy.
So far, six of the eight have completed the full programme. Of the six, five have not had a relapse -- a return of cancerous cells to the brain -- at a nine-month monitoring point.
"This is the first time that laser technology has been used intracranially, meaning inside an enclosed skull, using MRI in real time to avoid collateral damage," said Carpentier.
"This is the forerunner of future techniques in which MRI will play a core intervention role in neurosurgery."
The pilot trial, reported in the latest issue of the US journal Neurosurgery, was carried out under the supervision of the French Health Products Safety Agency (Afssaps).
It drew on advanced technology supplied by the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and a Texan company, BioTex Inc., which specialises in the use of lasers for medical therapy.
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획기적인 진보로, 프랑스 신경외과 의료진이 암세포를 제거하기 위해 조그마한 광케이블 레이저 장치를 이용해 극도로 작은 구멍으로 뇌종양을 성공적으로 치료했다. 파리의 Pitie-Salpetriere 병원의 Alexandre Carpentier는 전신마취가 아닌 국부마취로 두개골 안에서 레이저 수술을 한것은 처음이라고 말했다. 의료진은 두개골에 3mm의 미세한 구멍을 뚫고 뇌안에 광케이블을 삽입하였다. 3초마다 오직 암세포만 제거되도록 태우는 부분의 온도를 계산하였다. 이제까지 시범적으로 8명이 치료받았고, 그들은 일반적인 치료에 실패하거나, 수술이 불가능한 폐암이나 유방암과 같은 다양한 암으로 부터 생긴 뇌종양에 고통받고 있었다. 그들 중 6명은 뇌종양이 완전히 제거 되었고, 6명중 다섯은 9개월이 지나도록 제발하지 않았다. 환자들은 수술 중에는 아무런 느낌을 받지 않았고 수술 후에도 14시간동안 정상적인 활동이 가능했다고 의료진들은 말했다.
점점 진보하는 의학 기술~^^
이런 기사를 볼때마다 기분이 좋아진다~ㅋ