Robot Removes Woman’s Brain Tumour

Michelle Butterfield
Times Colonist

Calgary doctors have made surgical history, using a robot to remove a brain tumour from a 21-year-old woman.

Doctors used remote controls and an imaging screen, similar to a video game, to guide the two-armed robot through Paige Nickason’s brain during the nine-hour surgery Monday.

Surgical instruments acting as the hands of the robot -called NeuroArm - provided surgeons with the tools needed to successfully remove the egg-shaped tumour.

This is the first time a robot has performed surgery of this kind, but it will not be the last.

Already, the University of Calgary has patients lined up to receive similar surgeries.

“Paige’s brain surgery represents a technical achievement in the use of image-guided robotic technology to remove a relatively complex brain tumour,” said Dr. Garnette Sutherland, professor of neurosurgery at the University of Calgary faculty of medicine and NeuroArm team leader.

NeuroArm has the distinct advantage of being able to move in smaller increments than a surgeon’s hand, Sutherland said.

Typically, the human hand can steady itself and move in increments of one or two millimetres. NeuroArm can move in increments of 50 microns.

A micron is one millionth of a metre.

As well, NeuroArm can operate in the brain in a way that is less invasive and more delicate than a surgeon’s hands.

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