Neuronavigation

against the stroke


Author: Yaroslava Rodchenko

Source: Social and economical innovations — 2009 / Material VII English language contest. —Donetsk, DMA — 2009, p. 32-34

A stroke occurs when the blood flow to the brain is decreased or stopped. The blood flow can be blocked from a blood clot, plaque or a leak in a blood vessel. Sometimes the blood flow to the brain is blocked for a brief time. There will be signs of a stroke, but the signs go away in minutes to hours. This is called a TIA or transient ischemic attack or mini stroke. This is a strong warning that there is a problem and a stroke could occur in the future. When the blood flow to the brain is blocked causing permanent damage, it is called a stroke. Tests can be done to find the type, location and cause of the blockage to the blood flow of the brain.

Signs

The effects of a stroke depend on the location and amount of damage to the brain. Signs are sudden and may include:

  • Numbness, tingling or weakness in the face, arm or leg, often only on one side of the body
  • Confusion or trouble understanding
  • Problems speaking
  • Problems seeing out of one or both eyes
  • Dizziness or trouble with balance, coordination or walking
  • Sudden severe headache with no known cause

The article says about human’s brain, particularly methods against the cerebral stroke with the help of neurosurgeon tomography.

There is an interesting historical fact, that Vladimir Lenin, Boris Godunov, Ariel Sharon, Alfred Shnitke were the victims of brain illness. Moreover some decades ago only one patient from ten survived after operation on brain. Nowadays, fortunately, seven – eight patients from ten survive after such an operation. Thanks to what surgeons reached success.

There is no more painful illness than cerebral stroke, which takes the third place of danger after cancer & myocardial infarction.

The reason of the stroke – is the decrement of vessels (fig. 1).

brain artery blockage
Fig. 1 – The brain artery blockage

Neuronavigation system can simply discover the attacked area with all it’s broken vessels. It makes the scanning of brain & compares it with ideal 3-D brain model. This procedure takes for about 3 seconds. The information after scanning can be saved to computer’s memory or just intensified.

This way the exact result is achieved by sensors from different sides You could see the grey spot on the tomogrammes while looking at the screen. It is the attacked area by the cerebral stroke.

Many years ago surgeons had to discover the attacked area only by their own intuition, furthermore they could make a mistake & cut the scull incorrectly. Now they have the unique opportunity to do everything thoroughly without trepanation.

So, the surgeon makes a little hole in the scull for the half of the centimeter (0.5 sm). There he inputs his instruments with infrared sensor, which makes a real picture of attacked area from different sides. The angle of input is very important! This method is called neuronavigation, based on the computer tomography.

Day to date, this technology is the most safe & exact to cut the attacked plot. This method saves a lot of people from the cerebral stroke. The rehabilitation course consists of injections with so-called ‘kind virus’. This virus has a gene, which stimulates the increment of vessels. ‘Kind virus’ enters the cell & transforms it’s own gene to the cell’s one.

I want to believe, that a little bit later the cerebral stroke will cause the minimal danger to humanity due to new electronic technology.