Computer-aided system likely to advance brain surgery

A Chinese professor and his team at a Japanese university have invented a computer-aided system for brain surgery that will likely improve the success rate of surgical brain intervention.

Prof. Guo Shuxiang with Kagawa University said they had completed testing on the system and released a report at the ongoing medical engineering conference in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

According to Guo, surgical intervention is commonly used on organs such as liver, heart and lungs, but is rare and much more sophisticated when involving the brain.

The system consists of a computer and a controller that simulates human hand movements and inserts a tube into the brain accurately, which significantly improves the intervention effect.

Sensors are installed within the tube so doctors can monitor the readings of the tube as it transmits data from the blood vessels, Guo said.

The system can also record the entire process and use it later to train inexperienced doctors, he added.

Organized by Kagawa University and Harbin Engineering University, the 2011 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) International Conference on Complex Medical Engineering endeavors to release new research results and explore new therapies.

More than 120 Chinese and foreign experts on medicine and engineering are attending the four-day event that began Sunday.

Posted in: Computer-aided system likely to advance brain surgery