Brain Surgery
- All Services
- Behavioral Health Services
- Bone & Joint Care
- Cancer Care
- Diabetes & Endocrinology
- Emergency Care
- Health & Wellness
- Heart Care
- Hospitalist Care
- Integrative Care
- Intensive Care Unit
- Laboratory
- Maternity & Pregnancy Care
- Neurosciences
- Alzheimer’s Disease & Dementia
- Brain Surgery
- Headaches & Migraines
- Meet the Neuroscience Medical Team
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Nerve Pain
- Neuro Day Rehabilitation Program
- Neuro Interventional Radiology
- Neuroscience Clinic
- Neuroscience Resources
- Neurosciences Diagnostic Testing
- Parkinson’s Disease
- Pediatric Neuroscience Rehabilitation
- Sleep Diagnostic Center
- Spine Surgery
- Stroke
- Occupational Health
- Other Services
- Pediatrics
- Primary Care
- Radiology-Imaging
- Respiratory Care
- Surgical Services
- Vascular Services
- Weight Loss Surgery
- Women's Services
- Wound Care Center & Hyperbaric Medicine
Image-Guided Cranial Surgery
Overview
Like modern-day sailors who rely on the Earth’s network of global positioning satellites to determine their location at sea, Portsmouth Regional Hospital’s neurosurgical team uses a positioning technology in the operating room for precise, accurate surgery in the brain.
The Vector Vision Image-Guided Cranial Surgery System, manufactured by German-based technology company BrainLAB, combines special, high-density MRI scanning with minimally invasive surgical techniques in the operating room.
Process & Procedure
The first step in an image-guided cranial procedure is the scan performed in advance of the surgery to map the anatomy of the patient’s head and brain in very fine detail, using the anatomy of the patient’s face to create a reference field for the surgeon. Where a traditional diagnostic MRI scan makes its images at three or four millimeter intervals, a Vector Vision scan records images at intervals of one millimeter.
During the procedure itself, infrared cameras positioned adjacent to the operating table enable the surgeon to correlate the data on a computer monitor with the patient’s anatomy, telling him at all times the exact positions of the tumor, the scalpel and brain structures, maximizing accuracy and minimizing intrusion on essential areas.