Brainlab announces first patient procedures with Curve Image Guided Surgery at UCSF

Brainlab, a leader in software-driven medical technology, announced today the first patient procedures with Curve™ Image Guided Surgery at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center's Neuro-Oncology Clinic. UCSF surgeons rely on Curve for advanced neurosurgery procedures to help detect and remove brain tumors and other disorders.

UCSF Medical Center is one of the top hospitals in the nation in neurology and neurosurgery with the largest brain tumor treatment program in the United States. The Center has led many advances in treatments, including brain mapping, which has significantly improved the outcome for patients with brain and spinal cord tumors. Brain mapping enables doctors to remove as much of a tumor as possible while minimizing the impact on the crucial areas of the brain that control movement, speech and the senses.

Mitchel S. Berger, MD, FACS, FAANS, an internationally renowned expert in the treatment of brain and spinal cord tumors, chairman of the department of neurological surgery at UCSF and upcoming new president of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), comments on the implementation of Curve at UCSF Medical Center:

"By using advanced image-guided navigation technology like Curve by Brainlab, we are able to better apply our brain mapping technique on patients. Curve enables us [surgeons] to more accurately target tumor dissection down to the smallest degree by providing high definition screens and inline views that are just beautiful. This helps to improve our ultimate goal of removing all or most of the tumor without producing permanent neurological deficit in the patient."

Curve features the latest image guidance software powering advanced 3D displays and hallmark Brainlab image enrichment. This advanced technology allows ultra-fast image updating when tracking instruments, which promotes intra-operative confidence.

"The screen resolution on Curve is a dramatic improvement over past systems and the inline views are spectacular. The toggle capability between axial and sagittal views is so smooth with the critical clinical difference at the midline where the front and back borders of the tumor can be accurately displayed with no image flipping," says Berger.

Through a human-centered design approach, Brainlab Curve challenges conventional surgical utility and incorporates great ergonomics, two game-changing, multi-directional touch terminals, digital HD, hi-fi and wi-fi*.

On an annual basis, the UCSF Neuro-Oncology Clinic performs approximately 1,000 cases using Brainlab navigation systems. UCSF was the first hospital in the US to install Curve. Since the installation and clinical use of two new Curve systems (Curve Single Display in December 2011 and Curve Dual Display in February 2012), the clinic has already performed 50 and 25 cases respectively.

"It is a privilege to collaborate with leading institutions like UCSF Medical Center and to work with renowned surgeons such as Dr. Berger," said Stefan Vilsmeier, President and CEO at Brainlab. "These partnerships enable us to constantly deliver above and beyond customer expectations, and to ultimately deliver the industry's most advanced image-guided navigation technology—making an immediate positive impact on overall surgeon performance and potentially on patient outcomes."

SOURCE Brainlab