by
Lisa Chamoff, Contributing Reporter | October 10, 2022
From the October 2022 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
“This solution delivers correlation between internal and external anatomy in one shot, revealing any misalignment that would otherwise remain undetected and could result in delivering excess dose to the heart,” said Lukas Kompatscher, manager of product management and marketing for ExacTrac Positioning at Brainlab.
UZ Brussel in Belgium treated the first patients with the ExacTrac Dynamic DIBH workflow and the team found that it streamlined the treatment process and increased positioning confidence through “on-the-fly” X-ray confirmation of the patient´s breath hold level.
“Internal anatomy verification at the breath hold level may increase confidence in dose-sparing of critical structures like the heart,” Kompatscher said. “The incorporation of ‘on-the-fly’ X-ray confirmation streamlines the process and delivers the confidence that the heart is outside of the treatment beam.”
The new version of the ExacTrac Dynamic also incorporates an updated workflow for positioning and monitoring implanted markers for prostate and other soft-tissue treatments. Quick verification allows clinicians to detect internal movement during the treatment of organs with implanted markers, without interrupting the treatment, and allowing radiation therapists to reduce margins and improve outcomes for stereotactic body radiotherapy treatments, Kompatscher said.
ExacTrac Dynamic was recently also used to successfully treat a neurological condition called trigeminal neuralgia in combination with the Brainlab frameless mask system.
“This condition can be treated with radiosurgery and is often done with rigid frames fixated directly to the patients head, as it requires a very high level of accuracy, even higher than for stereotactic treatments of multiple brain metastases, or for cranial lesions,” Kompatscher said. “Some of our customers have used ExacTrac Dynamic and our noninvasive immobilization system to perform these types of high accuracy treatments.”
Brainlab also launched a new program called Brainlab Novalis Knowledge to train, connect and certify radiosurgery professionals.
This includes Brainlab Academy, which offers in-person and digital training courses on Brainlab radiosurgery treatment planning software, and Brainlab Novalis Circle, where clinicians share new treatment approaches.
The Novalis Certified program allows hospitals providing stereotactic radiosurgery and stereotactic body radiotherapy to obtain certification with an external audit conducted by the independent and multidisciplinary Novalis Circle expert group.
