Donor-funded Laser Technology is Changing Lives

Donor-funded Laser Technology is Changing Lives

Andrew Najar, eight weeks post surgery and seizure free, with his proud and supportive parents, Silverio (left) and Lourdes (right).

Thanks to community support of state-of-the-art technology called Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy (LITT), Alberta Children’s Hospital neurosurgeons are the first in western Canada to perform a revolutionary procedure to help children suffering with seizures.

In fact, thanks to community donations, life-changing brain surgery is now possible for children for whom surgery just wasn’t an option — until now. What used to be an invasive open procedure that required the equivalent of 100 stitches to close the surgical site can now be accomplished with just one suture.

Using LITT, neurosurgeons are able to pass a thin laser probe through a millimetre-sized incision into a target deep within the brain. The probe then heats up and destroys the tumour or lesion responsible for causing the seizures, while preserving the surrounding healthy brain tissue.“While we use the utmost care to plan and perform operations within the brain, LITT allows us to operate with exquisite precision, in a non-invasive way,” says Dr. Walter Hader.

“Considering what’s at stake — a child’s life, a child’s future — my colleagues and I are grateful for any technology that makes these procedures safer and accessible to more children.” – Dr. Walter Hader, Neurosurgeon, Alberta Children’s Hospital

LITT works in tandem with another donor-funded piece of innovative technology called a Robotic Surgical Assistant (ROSA). ROSA is used first to provide essential minimally invasive brain mapping in advance of LITT to show the surgeon where seizures are originating, and secondly to robotically place the LITT probes directly into the targeted tissue with pinpoint accuracy.

Brain surgery is very effective in many children with epilepsy and can significantly reduce their seizures or even take them away altogether in 50-70 percent of patients. However, prior to LITT and ROSA, brain mapping and open operations required the child’s entire skull cap to be removed.

The process could be understandably frightening for families and some parents chose not to put their child through it.Today, surgeons describe a very different scenario to families: a tiny incision, very little or no pain, home in one or two days, and one suture instead of 100.

“ROSA and LITT have made brain surgery less daunting for families. This technology is actually changing the conversation we’re having with families,” says Dr. Hader. “Considering what’s at stake — a child’s life, a child’s future — my colleagues and I are grateful for any technology that makes these procedures safer and accessible to more children.”

Scientists at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI) are attracting international attention for being the first to uncover a link between prenatal depression, weakened brain wiring in children, and children’s aggression, hyperactivity and vulnerability to depression.

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