Commenting on the case, Joseph Neimat, M.D., study author and associate professor of neurological surgery noted, "While brain structures with regular shapes can be readily targeted with laser therapy, complex structures have historically posed a challenge with this modality. A directional laser enabled contouring in the hippocampus and amygdala, regions that would otherwise be difficult to ablate. These findings, while preliminary, help lay the foundation for maximally precise, minimally-invasive lesioning of targets in the brain including tumors, seizure foci and low-flow vascular lesions."

"We are encouraged by the growing body of scientific evidence supporting the use of NeuroBlate as a minimally invasive tool to ablate brain lesions," said John Schellhorn, President and CEO of Monteris Medical. "We are grateful to our clinical collaborators for advancing these studies and presenting their findings at this important scientific forum."


About the NeuroBlate System®

The NeuroBlate System is FDA-cleared to ablate, necrotize or coagulate soft tissue encountered in the discipline of neurosurgery through the application of laser thermotherapy. NeuroBlate is a tool (as opposed to a "treatment") and is not intended to treat any specific disease or lesion type such as GBMs. Physicians should use their clinical judgment and experience when deciding whether to use NeuroBlate.

The NeuroBlate System is considered to be minimally invasive surgery. With the NeuroBlate System, a surgeon makes a small hole in the skull, approximately as wide as a pencil. A small probe is then used to deliver laser light energy to heat and destroy the tumor. The NeuroBlate System combines magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and software-based visualization to allow surgeons to remotely ablate tumors in many locations in the brain, at the surface or deep inside, through a computer module. An MRI compatible robotic probe driver helps the surgeon precisely guide the laser probe to the tumor and apply heat to it in controlled amounts, until the targeted tissue is destroyed.

With its minimally invasive approach, the NeuroBlate System has shown results analogous to open surgery.i Patients undergoing procedures with the NeuroBlate System may experience less pain compared with those undergoing open surgical procedures and reduced hospital length of stay over open surgical procedures.i,ii,iii

Since it received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2013, the NeuroBlate System has been adopted for use in more than 22 leading institutions across the country including Cleveland Clinic, UC San Diego Health System, Barnes Jewish Hospital, Washington University and Yale New Haven Hospital. Monteris Medical supports the installation of new systems with comprehensive hands-on training and ongoing technical support.

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