Cool minimally invasive brain surgery combines mini robot and MRI [Video]

Here’s an idea for a surgical procedure that would be right at home as a plot device in a science fiction film long before it receives FDA approval. It combines robot technology with a metal alloy that changes shape at a certain temperature to treat inoperable brain tumors. Three professors from the University of Maryland are working to develop the minimally invasive surgical procedure with a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

An article from the National Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Biomedicine’s website highlighted the project. It has the not-so-sexy name: minimally invasive neurosurgical intracranial robot.

The seed for it was planted as Dr. J. Marc Simard, a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, watched a TV program. It showed how sterilized maggots could consume dead or damaged tissue. He wondered if something like that could work to treat brain tumors.

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