Tag: Neurosurgery

Edwards ForeSight Brain Oxygenation Sensors FDA Cleared to Pair with Hemosphere Monitor

Edwards Lifesciences won FDA clearance to integrate its ForeSight brain tissue oxymetry sensors with the HemoSphere monitoring platform. While the clearance is really for a connecting cable, the capability allows anesthesiologists to monitor the oxygen saturation of the brain during surgeries and to correlate it with hemodynamic parameters in real- (Read more...)

Sensor Monitors Brain Aneurysms Post Treatment

Aneurysms within the brain are extremely dangerous, although there are therapies available such as stents and blood flow diverters. Even after treatment, a cerebral aneurysm can continue developing and how it heals cannot be predicted. Monitoring a treated vessel deep within the brain would provide physicians with the ability to act in situations t (Read more...)

Neurons Grow on Crosslinks of Carbon Nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes have a host of interesting properties. They are biocompatible and electrically conductive, so have been investigated as a possible material for growing nerve tissues. To make carbon nanotubes cooperate as desired, novel forms are required and researchers at SISSA (International School for Advanced Studies) and University of Trieste (Read more...)

Wireless Brain Implant Controls Mice Using Drugs and Light

Optogenetics is a quickly evolving field that allows scientists to activate specific neurons using bursts of light. The technique may help to uncover the basis of neurological diseases and how to tame them. Using optogenetics to assess how different drugs affect the central nervous system may offer a powerful new scientific tool. To that end, [&hel (Read more...)

Implanted Electrodes Improve Powered Prosthetic Arms

Today’s conventional powered prosthetic arms usually have a few built-in electrodes that make contact with patient skin. These are good enough to open and close a simple claw, but for more nuanced control of prostheses with multiple degrees of freedom and individual fingers, a better approach is required. Implantable electrodes can gather a g (Read more...)

New Biomaterial Improves Brain Cancer Survival in Rats

Researchers from the University of Nottingham have developed a new biomaterial that delivers chemotherapies to treat brain cancer. Their work demonstrates that their biodegradable paste led to increased survival compared to controls, and that half of all rats in a study were clear of any cancer as confirmed by laboratory tests. This exciting develo (Read more...)

Generating Hallucinations Using Optogenetics

About a decade ago, Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University developed a technology called optogenetics. It allows scientists to stimulate individual nerve cells using light beams within the brains of live and moving animals. Now, this technology has been used to generate visual hallucinations within lab mice, causing them to act as though the things (Read more...)

New Nanoparticles Help Spinal Cords to Heal Following Injury

When people damage their spinal cords, a lot of the long-term consequences often stem from the body’s overreaction to the injury. That’s because the blood-brain barrier protecting the spinal cord becomes compromised and overly aggressive immune cells flood in. Now, a team from the University of Michigan has developed a way of using intr (Read more...)

Two-Year-Old Receives Deep Brain Stimulation Implant

A two-year-old girl has received a deep brain stimulation (DBS) device to treat her dystonia. The condition, which results in painful random muscle movements, spasms, and the like, can lead to severe limitations on a child’s development and overall quality of life. A team at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital worked together to deve (Read more...)

Tiny Nanowire Probes Measure Intracellular Electrical Activity

Researchers at the University of Surrey and Harvard University have developed tiny nanoprobes that can measure electrical signals inside cells, such as neurons and cardiac cells. Unlike previous technology for intracellular electrophysiology, the nanoprobes cause minimal destruction to the cells, and could pave the way for human-machine interfaces (Read more...)