Robotic device offers new potential for brain surgery applications

More effective treatment for epilepsy could be achieved through the use of a robotic device that could facilitate less invasive forms of brain surgery.

Created by Vanderbilt University engineers, the device is capable of poking through the cheek and entering the brain from beneath, making it easier to access the hippocampus – the part of the brain where seizures tend to originate.

It utilises a shape-memory alloy needle that can be precisely steered along a curving path, plus a robotic platform that is able to operate inside the magnetic field created by an MRI scanner.

Key advantages of this system include the fact that surgeons can avoid having to drill through the skull, instead entering the body much closer to the target area. If development progresses as planned, it could be in operating rooms within the next decade.

Associate professor of neurological surgery Joseph Neimat said: "To have a system with a curved needle and unlimited access would make surgeries minimally invasive. We could do a dramatic surgery with nothing more than a needle stick to the cheek."

Epilepsy affects more than 500,000 people in the UK and can often be difficult to treat when drug therapies fail, making this an important innovation.