'Stealth' Imager Helps Surgeons Treat Brain Tumors

BALTIMORE, Jan. 6 -- Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center have a new imaging tool that brings more safety and precision to difficult brain and sinus surgeries. The device, known as the Stealth Station, combines computer technology with imaging techniques and infrared optics to give surgeons a three-dimensional view inside a patient's head. Doctors are thus able to pinpoint the position of surgical instruments within the cranial cavity.
The Stealth Station helps guide us through hard-to-reach areas with greater confidence, said Howard M. Eisenberg, chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at the university's School of Medicine. This technology combines the two biggest advances in neurosurgery in the past 40 years -- 3-D computer imaging and the operating microscope. The Stealth Station is a significant improvement, stated Eisenberg.