Sep 28 2010
University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center has deployed the AutoLITT technology featuring an MRI-guided laser, to coagulate brain tumors.
University Hospitals is one of the three medical centers across the globe to provide AutoLITT for the fight against cancer. The technology is effective in the treatment of glioblastoma, which is one of the difficult-to-treat and aggressive brain cancers.
The team of UH Brain Tumor and Neuro-Oncology conducted a research trial on the AutoLITT. The US FDA had given the clearance to the AutoLITT in May 2009. AutoLITT stands for Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy, which integrates three technologies, namely, minimally invasive MRI-guided surgical procedures, real-time MRI heat monitoring, and a laser-induced heat therapy. The MRI-guided laser destroys tumors without causing any damage to the neighboring healthy tissue.
The AutoLITT technique is conducted in an MRI scanner, with the patient. This allows surgeons in planning, steering and viewing in real time the system, the coagulated or cooked tumor tissue, and the area’s heat map that has been treated by the MRI laser.
A thin probe is placed inside the tumor via a tiny hole in the skull. The tip of the probe produces laser energy to heat the tissue in a single direction, and removes heat from other directions, by cooling. The MRI signals calculate the temperature in, as well as around the tumor. This allows the physician to view the tumor, and the thermal damage. The surgeon can accurately target the treatment due to the real-time feedback.