Monteris Medical launches probes for minimally invasive robotic laser thermotherapy system

Monteris Medical (Plymouth, MN) has launched two new reduced diameter mini-probes for its NeuroBlate minimally invasive robotic laser thermotherapy tool. The new probes will be highlighted during the 83rd American Academy of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) Annual Scientific Meeting, taking place this week in Washington, DC. In addition, the company has released new clinical data that supports the use of NeuroBlate in neurosurgery procedures, which will be presented during the conference.

Related: Neurosurgeons to speak on clinical utility of real-time navigated laser therapy

The new mini-probes have a reduced outer diameter of 2.2 mm. Each of the new FDA-cleared probes offers distinct advantages, depending on a surgeon's particular procedural needs: SideFire Select is a directional laser for contoured ablation of targets while preserving adjacent healthy tissue, whereas the FullFire Select is a diffusing laser designed to provide fast, volumetric ablation in a concentric zone of hyperthermia.

NeuroBlate SideFire Select and FullFire Select laser mini-probes can be used within a standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) bore, and can also be used in conjunction with the company's signature Robotic Probe Driver and Mini-Bolt, as well as other skull fixation devices.

NeuroBlate employs a pulsed surgical laser to deliver targeted energy to ablate soft tissue in neurosurgery procedures. With the option of selecting 3.3 or 2.2 mm probes, it offers surgeons the full spectrum of probe choice and added versatility. Each of the probes employs proprietary hyperthermia modulation and a unique sapphire capsule with high laser transparency and robust thermal properties. The probes can also be controlled remotely through the company's Robotic Probe Driver.

With NeuroBlate, a surgeon makes a small hole in the skull, approximately as wide as a pencil. A small probe is then used to deliver laser light energy to heat and destroy the tumor. The system combines MRI and software-based visualization to allow surgeons to remotely ablate tumors in many locations in the brain, at the surface or deep inside, through a computer module. An MRI-compatible robotic probe driver helps the surgeon precisely guide the laser probe to the tumor and apply heat to it in controlled amounts, until the targeted tissue is destroyed.

With its minimally invasive approach, NeuroBlate has shown results analogous to open surgery. Patients undergoing procedures with the system may experience less pain compared with those undergoing open surgical procedures and reduced hospital length of stay over open surgical procedures.

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