A Swiss Team Uses Transcranial MR-Guided Focused Ultrasound to Treat Patients With Functional Brain...( TIRAT CARMEL Is...)

TIRAT CARMEL, Israel, July 14 /PRNewswire/ -- InSightec Ltd. today announced that a team at the University Children's Hospital Zurich has completed a feasibility study testing the use of non-invasive transcranial MR-guided focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS) for the treatment of neuropathic pain. Ten adult patients diagnosed with chronic neuropathic pain successfully underwent non-invasive deep brain ablation surgery (central lateral thalamotomy) with transcranial MRgFUS and showed improvement in pain scores and reduction of pain medication with no adverse effects at three months follow-up. This is the first study in the world to test non-invasive transcranial focused ultrasound as a treatment modality for functional brain disorders.

"This study showed that we can perform successful operations in the depth of the brain without opening the cranium or physically penetrating the brain with medical tools, something that appeared to be unimaginable only a few years ago," said Daniel Jeanmonod, neurosurgeon at the University of Zurich. "By eliminating any physical penetration into the brain, we hope to duplicate the therapeutic effects of invasive deep brain ablation without the side effects for a wider group of patients."

Neurosurgeons currently treat patients with functional neurological disorders such as neuropathic pain or Parkinson's disease by inserting a tiny probe through the cranium and brain to reach and ablate damaged tissue.

"The more traditional invasive treatment works to alleviate pain and other symptoms, however it exposes the patient to complications, including infections, bleeding and damage to surrounding brain tissue," Dr. Jeanmonod explained. "Also, only patients whose target tissue lies in the clear path of the probe are eligible for the invasive procedure," he said.

"We now have early clinical evidence suggesting that tran
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