Robotics helping University Hospitals hit the right spots to treat brain cancer, other neurological condition – cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio If someone asked you to drive to Columbus, you could probably get there. But a GPS is going to help you take the quickest and most efficient route.

Thats the idea behind the Stealth Autoguide crainial robotic guidance platform being used by brain surgeons at University Hospital. The tool helps brain surgeons be as precise as possible as theyre drilling into a patients skull to biopsy a brain tumor or insert a catheter.

The tool is roughly 10 times more precise than the average brain surgeon, said Dr. Andrew Sloan, the director of the Brain Tumor and Neuro-Oncology Center and the Center for Translational Neuro-Oncology at UHs Neurological Institute and the Seidman Cancer Center.

That precision helps keep the patient safe and reduces the chances a surgeon might miss a small and hard-to-reach tumor or lesion thats deep in the brain.

Ive been doing this a long time, and I can do it without the robot pretty well, Sloan said. But this adds a layer of precision that even a skilled surgeon cant have every single time.

As part of Brain Awareness Week, cleveland.com is highlighting some of the advanced technology being used in brain surgery at each of Clevelands three largest health systems. The three-day series began Wednesday with artificial intelligence used at the Cleveland Clinic and continued Thursday with virtual reality at MetroHealth.

Last year, UH Cleveland Medical Center became the second site east of the Mississippi River to use the Stealth Autoguide, developed by the Minnesota medical tech company Medtronic.

Precision is critical for a brain surgeon, because even a slight difference in the angle of a drill can alter its trajectory. That precision is particularly important when a small error could result in a surgeon hitting a blood vessel and causing a hemorrhage, Sloan said.

It doesnt take a big error to cause a big change in your trajectory. So precision is really fundamental to what we do.

To use the tool, Sloan starts by feeding an MRI, CT scan or other patient data into a computer. That data acts as the GPS and direct the Stealth Autoguide tool during the surgery.

Sloan manually plans the surgery in the computer, too, to double-check the plan is accurate.

On the day of the procedure, the surgical team sets up a series of markers around the patient. Those markers give coordinates to the robotic tool to help it confirm its in the right location.

Sloan still needs to start the drill himself, but it stops itself once it reaches the correct depth into someones brain, he said. If the surgeon is doing a biopsy, he or she can take a sample, remove the tool from the brain and stitch the hole.

Sloan specializes in treating cancer patients, so he primarily uses the Stealth Autoguide tool to take a biopsy of a tumor. Hes used it for all of his biopsies since he first used it Nov. 10, he said.

The tool should increase the odds a biopsy is successful, Sloan said. He estimated 12 to 15% of brain biopsies in the U.S. are inconclusive; thats sometimes because a surgeon misses a small target deep in the brain. The tool should help patients avoid having to come in for a second biopsy if the first is inconclusive, Sloan said.

If Im [aiming for] a 1-centimeter lesion thats 10 centimeters deep in the brain, I would tell the patient it might take me several biopsies to hit the target using conventional techniques, because its true, Sloan said. With the robot, I dont tell them that. Because Im pretty confident Im going to hit the target.

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Robotics helping University Hospitals hit the right spots to treat brain cancer, other neurological condition - cleveland.com