Robotic Neurosurgery in Hyderabad

For the first time in Hyderabad, robotic neurosurgery was performed to detect the seizure center in a 9-year-old boy's brain by Dr. Manas Panigrahi, Consultant Neurosurgeon at KIMS Hospitals recently.

It's a latest advancement in neurosurgery practice as robot-guided neurosurgery is available in a few cities worldwide. However, in India, only 3-4 cities have robotic neurosurgery in their practice, the hospitals said in a release here Sunday.

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Recently, a robotic system was launched in KIMS hospital's department of neurosurgery. The robotic system helps in various brain surgeries including:

• Epilepsy surgery
• Stereotactic guided brain tumor biopsy
• Parkinson's disease (deep brain stimulation)
• Brain tumor surgery to identify important and problematic parts of the brain

With the help of a robotic system, neurosurgeons can operate on brain tumors with a small opening in the skull, which helps in early recovery and less pain to the patients, the neurosurgeon said.

A 9-year-old boy was brought to KIMS hospitals with uncontrolled seizures in spite of multiple medications. He was initially evaluated with MRI brain and video EEG by Neurologist Dr. Sita Jayalaxmi (Epileptologist KIMS, Secunderabad) but couldn't localize from where the seizure is starting.

For such patients, electrodes have to be kept in the brain to find out seizure onset. However, in this patient, robotic guided eight electrode placements were done in the brain successfully by Neurosurgeon Dr. Manas Panigrahi to record brain electrical activity, which helps in identification of the place from where seizures are coming and further details.

This new robotic system helps in the most precise placement of EEG electrodes. Previously, this procedure was taking almost 7 hours but with the use of robotic systems, there was a 50 percent reduction in the duration of surgery and also not cost any more than the previous one, the hospital claimed.

With conventional frames, there was a limitation of the number of electrodes which are placed (6-7 only). But now, any number of electrodes as per the requirement can be placed in the head.

Post final surgery, the boy may be allowed to attend school and continue his day-to-day activities. The pros of this new procedure are that it is painless and more precise than the former one because of the less manual intervention.

This robotic guidance neurosurgery helps in eloquent area brain tumor surgery, stereotactic biopsy of brain tumor, Stereo EEG electrode placement in epilepsy, and deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease, the release added.

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