New Technique Allows Surgeons to Remove Brain Tumors Through Nose

Surgeons in Britain are successfully removing brain tumors by putting an endoscope through the patient’s nose, London’s Daily Mail reported.

The endoscope – a long, flexible tube – has a light and camera attached to it, so surgeons can see the brain’s images projected onto a TV in the operating room.

Surgeons Nijaguna Mathad and Salil Nair of Wessex Neurological Center came up with the idea for the procedure and said it allows them to remove tumors that are located at the base of the skull or on the tip of the spine.

The new surgery is minimally invasive and avoids scarring.

One of the first patients to undergo this new surgery – he had a tumor with erosion at base of his skull – was able to avoid cranial incisions, Mathad said.

"Conventionally, he would have undergone a bifrontal craniotomy which has associated risks of epilepsy and stroke," Mathad said. "It would also have required the patient to remain in hospital for a number of days and restricted him from driving afterwards.

'By using the endonasal endoscopic procedure, we were able to reach the tumor with minor disturbance to the surrounding parts of the brain and did not need to make incisions on the head, which would have resulted in a longer hospital stay."

Click here to read more on this story from the Daily Mail.