New Pre-Clinical Data on OmniGuide's BeamPath NEURO(TM) Demonstrates Precise Cutting in Br...( CAMBRIDGE Mass. July 6 /- OmniGuide...)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 6 /PRNewswire/ -- OmniGuide, Inc., the developer of the first and only flexible CO2 laser fiber based on breakthrough photonic bandgap technology, today announced the results of a pre-clinical study comparing the Company's fiber scalpels to conventional incision methods in neurosurgery. In the study, surgeons from the Barrow Neurological Institute reported that careful studies of incisions produced in live brain tissue with fiber delivered CO2 laser radiation produced precise cuts while minimally effecting adjacent brain tissue when compared with a widely used reference technique. The study, led by Drs. Mark Preul, Robert W. Ryan, and Robert Spetzler of the Neurosurgery Research Laboratory, Barrow Neurological Institute, in Phoenix, Arizona, was presented at the annual conference of the American Academy of Neurological Surgeons in San Diego, California.

"The study demonstrates that the flexible CO2 laser fiber was easy to use and manipulate under the operating microscope, could be accurately aimed and created precise incisions without the need to touch or manipulate the tissue," said Dr. Preul, Director of the Barrow's Neurosurgical Research Laboratory. "The device also allows surgeons to cut and coagulate with a single instrument. Given the high absorption of the CO2 laser in water, a smaller area of tissue is affected as deeper incisions are made which indicates that the BeamPath NEURO could be a valuable new tool added to the neurosurgical armamentarium."

CO2 lasers were first used in neurosurgery in 1970 but were never widely adopted because the systems available for delivering the laser energy were awkward and surgeons were limited to "line of sight" procedures. OmniGuide's BeamPath fiber is based on breakthrough fiber technology developed at MIT and exclusively licensed to OmniGuide. The company manufactures the world's first flexible fibers for CO2 laser surgery. BeamPath fibers
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