At the 2023 Scientific Conference thematic "Application of artificial intelligence in health" taking place on May 28 at Tam Anh General Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, experts and doctors in the field of neurosurgery - craniocerebral in Vietnam officially announced and reported the application of the new generation brain surgery robot Modus V Synaptive with outstanding efficiency in brain tumor surgery, increased brain function, and maximum protection for neurological diseases.
Tam Anh Hospital is the first medical facility in Vietnam to apply the Modus V Synaptive artificial intelligence robot in brain tumor surgery, brain hemorrhage and dangerous neuro-cranial diseases. Currently, there are 10 countries applying this robot around the world (most of them are European and American countries).
Robot specializes in treating difficult brain tumors
At the seminar, experts and neurosurgeons from Tam Anh General Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City reported typical brain tumor surgeries performed by Modus V Synaptive robot. In particular, a case was reported and published in the prestigious American Medical Journal Medicine.
4 years ago, patient Phung Kim Minh (born in 1952 in Hanoi) was diagnosed with neuroma V, grade 4. The tumor was large, stretched, located in the extremely dangerous functional area and pressed on the brain stem structure. Many major hospitals in Hanoi refuse to operate due to potential risks of paralysis of nerves IX, X, XI, XII... if operated by traditional methods. As a result, the patient can lose independence, choke on food, pneumonia, infection and shock, and even death.
After 4 years of living with the tumor, the patient was operated on by Doctor Chu Tan Si and his team using the Modus V Synaptive robot. “This is a challenging and stressful case. The patient is carrying a tumor that is too large and in a dangerous position," the doctor said.
Thanks to the robot, the surgery is simulated in advance on a computer, allowing the doctor to actively choose the path to the tumor so as not to damage the nerve fiber bundles. The official surgery on the robot took place a day later. The patient was operated on in the supine position, with one hand under the operating table and electrodes placed to control the VII nerve. Thanks to that, after surgery, the patient did not have facial paralysis on one side.
The surgery lasted 4 hours. The doctor removed all the tumor and released the compression mass. The patient was fully awake, his dizziness was significantly reduced, and he was able to walk after a night of intensive resuscitation. The patient recovered quickly thanks to the guidance and monitoring robot that did not damage the nerve fiber bundles, the healthy brain tissue during the surgery, and did not experience postoperative sequelae. About a week after surgery, the patient was discharged from the hospital and flew back to Hanoi.
Doctor Chu Tan Si and his colleagues also applied the smart robot Modus V Synaptive to operate on a brain tumor as large as 6 x 5 cm, equivalent to a duck egg for a 22-year-old girl from An Giang who was completely paralyzed for 6 months before the operation. The female patient then recovered well and was able to walk. In April, the team operated on a 4-year-old male student in Ho Chi Minh City with a cavernous hemangioma, compressing it, causing rupture of a cerebral blood vessel, bleeding complications and epilepsy.
Another surgery using the Modus V Synaptive robot was also performed for a 26-year-old man in Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh had a ventricular tumor, located deep in the left ventricle. The tumor is friable, fragile, easy to bleed, has many sources of tumor growth, especially deep in the brain, causing damage, blocking the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid and increasing intracranial pressure. The surgery lasted 2 hours, the doctor both removed the tumor and re-translated the patient's cerebrospinal fluid. After surgery, the patient's symptoms of tremor, weakness and headache decreased. After 3-4 days, the patient was able to walk and was discharged on day 5.
The revolution of neurosurgery in Vietnam
At the conference, leading experts and doctors in the field of neurosurgery - craniofacial surgery assessed that the appearance of the Modus V Synaptive brain surgery robot is a revolution in the brain surgery industry in Vietnam.
Neurological - craniocerebral diseases such as brain tumor, meningioma, pituitary tumor, hemorrhagic stroke, cerebral edema... are the most dangerous diseases due to their serious impact on patients' health. The surgical treatment of these diseases poses many challenges to the world's medicine in terms of effectiveness, and requires minimizing postoperative sequelae. Because, the brain and central nervous system govern almost every function of the body from walking, language, vision to thinking, thinking, memory...
Previously, the classic brain surgery methods such as Navigation system, microsurgery glass... could not see the nerve fiber bundles before or during surgery. This leads to the risk of breaking, severing them or damaging surrounding healthy brain tissue. As a result, the patient may experience severe sequelae. Robots applying artificial intelligence at a sophisticated level can overcome these limitations, providing optimal treatment efficiency with outstanding advantages that classic brain surgery methods do not have.
The new generation robot allows the surgeon to comprehensively observe the space and brain organization to clearly see the nerve fiber bundles, healthy brain tissue around the tumor... on the same 3D image both before, during and after surgery. This helps the doctor to comprehensively evaluate and choose the most effective and safest way to access the tumor.
With specialized software, the doctor can conduct 3D simulation surgery before the official surgery, actively choose the opening position of the skull, choose an effective surgical approach to the tumor or pathological area, minimizing damage to nerve fiber bundles and affecting healthy brain tissue. These are differences that no other brain surgery machine can make.
The robot monitors throughout the surgery, warns with light signals if the approach path and instruments tend to deviate, and allows the doctor to query the existing MRI, CT, CTA, DSA ... data for reference right on the screen, instead of having to re-access the data in multiple devices. From there, the doctor can make timely decisions.
Robot for outstanding efficiency, helping patients recover quickly, with more cost-effective treatment than dozens of brain tumor surgeries with overseas technology. “Thanks to the brain surgery robot Modus V Synaptive, a neurosurgeon with 30 years of experience like me, I can see the nerve fiber bundles during the surgery to avoid damage,” said Dr. Chu Tan Si.
In particular, this artificial intelligence robot also promotes optimal efficiency in surgery of difficult neurological - craniofacial diseases, located deep in the brain or near important structures of the brain. This is something that conventional surgical methods are difficult or dare not approach due to the high risk of complications.
