What is neuronavigation?
Neuronavigation is an advanced technology that provides guidance to the surgeon during surgery and helps to plan a sensitive surgical approach to the target lesion by identifying surrounding nerve and vascular structures. It can be compared to navigation systems used in cars and mobile phones. The neuronavigation system greatly increases the success of brain, nerve and spinal surgery and allows operations to be safer.
In which operations is neuronavigation used?
The neuronavigation system is mostly used in brain, nerve and spinal cord surgeries:
- Operations on brain tumors
- Cerebral haemorrhage
- Arteriovenous malformation
- Operations for Parkinson's disease or similar diseases with tremor
- Spine surgeries and determining the direction of screws inserted into the spine
- The neuronavigation system can be used in some orthopaedic surgeries
Advantages of the neuronavigation system
Neuronavigation shows the surgeon the shortest and safest path to the area where the lesion is located using MRI and CT images previously taken during brain and spine surgeries. As the surgeon reaches the area to be operated on using neuronavigation, the target area is approached with almost zero error and healthy tissue is damaged as little as possible. Risky brain and spine surgeries, where even millimetre errors can lead to negative consequences, become safer with the use of neuronavigation technology.
How does the patient prepare for neuronavigation?
There is no different preparation for patients in whom neuronavigation will be used.
Prior to surgery, a magnetic resonance imaging or CT scan of the area to be operated is performed. The resulting three-dimensional images are superimposed and uploaded to the Neuronavigation device used during surgery. Once the patient is brought into the operating room, the surgical area is marked on the computer using a probe that is passed over the surface of the skin. This provides the surgical team with the shortest and safest route map to reach the area where the surgery will be performed.
The neuronavigation device, which uses the patient's 3D radiological studies, allows the surgeon to work only in the problem area and stay away from the surrounding normal tissue, showing different risk areas in the brain or spinal cord.
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