Here’s an idea for a surgical procedure that would be right at home as a plot device in a science fiction film long before it receives FDA approval. It combines robot technology with a metal alloy that changes shape at a certain temperature to treat inoperable brain tumors. Three professors from the University of Maryland are working to develop the minimally invasive surgical procedure with a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
An article from the National Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Biomedicine’s website highlighted the project. It has the not-so-sexy name: minimally invasive neurosurgical intracranial robot.
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The seed for it was planted as Dr. J. Marc Simard, a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, watched a TV program. It showed how sterilized maggots could consume dead or damaged tissue. He wondered if something like that could work to treat brain tumors.
He spent several years developing the medical device technology with Rao Gullapalli, a professor of diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine and Jaydev Desai, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. They produced a prototype that resembles a finger with multiple joints to help it move in multiple directions. It also has a tool at the tip that uses electricity to heat and destroy tumors. A suction tube removes debris.
The article quoted Simard: “The idea was to have a device that’s small but that can do all the work a surgeon normally does…You could place this small robotic device inside a tumor and have it work its way around from within, removing pieces of diseased tissue.”
The ultimate goal is to provide a viable treatment for glioblastomas, a type of brain cancer that comes with an average survival rate of two years. The poor prognosis is due to limited accessibility and visibility using current neurosurgical tools and imaging techniques, according to the article.
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Of course there are several challenges. It could only be done with real-time MRI guidance. This would help the surgeon to see deep-seated tumors and monitor the robot’s movement without having to create a large incision in the brain, the article said.
The surgeon would insert the robot into the brain while the patient is outside of the scanner. Then, the surgeon could sit in a different room, guide the robot inside the brain and have it electrocauterize and remove the tissue as she watched on the MRI screen.
That leads to the next challenge. How can metal be used within a giant magnet without distorting the image? The solution comes in the form of a shape memory alloy. The material’s shape changes in response to temperature changes to control the robot’s movement.
The intracranial robot is still several years from the operating table. But it provides some long-term hope for a treatment alternative in the future.
