All Children’s Hospital is the first hospital in the state to use the newest generation of robotic neurosurgery technology that cuts what once was a 12-hour surgery down to just two hours.
“Only about 20 hospitals in North America are utilizing the ROSA robot so we are fortunate here at All Children’s Hospital to have this technology to treat some of the most complex brain disorders,” said pediatric neurosurgeon George Jallo, director of the Institute. “The ROSA robot provides our team with a new level of surgical assistance to treat a variety of neurological problems in children.”
Doctors at the new Johns Hopkins All Children’s Institute for Brain Protection Sciences have already begun performing surgeries using Medtech’s ROSA robotic surgical assistant to treat patients with epilepsy.
“Using the ROSA robot helps us advance treatment for patients with severe epilepsy,” said director of epileptology Parrish Winesett. “This new technology not only assists our team in identifying where in the brain seizures may be occurring, but also helps us target these areas with greater precision during surgery to provide families with answers on how to stop the seizures.”
The new technology allows patients to undergo a far less invasive surgery and minimizes the amount of time children have to be under anesthesia. That spells a much more comfortable procedure and one that is not quite as scary for kids and their families.
The process is called stereoelectroencephalography, or sEEG. It works by using a robot to help a neurosurgical team to accurately place electrodes in parts of the brain where abnormal electric activity is suspected. The process helps pinpoint the source of seizures in epileptic patients.
“The robot acts as a navigation system for the brain,” pediatric neurosurgeon Gerald Tuite said. “Our team reviews areas of abnormal brain activity and enters the data into the ROSA robot prior to surgery. During surgery, the robotic arm directs electrodes to a pre-planned path that allows the neurosurgeons to make tiny, precise incisions and remove the areas where seizures occur.”
