An illuminating retractor for intracranial microneurosurgery

Author

Mirsky, Roman ; McCullough, Timothy M. ; Grady, M. Sean ; Winn, H. Richard ; Howard, Matthew A., III ; Gillies, George T.

Author_Institution

Div. of Neurological Surgery, Iowa Univ., Iowa City, IA, USA

Volume

45

Issue

1

fYear

1998

Firstpage

129

Lastpage

131

Abstract

During certain microneurosurgical procedures, the illumination provided by current coaxial microscope light sources is suboptimal. One potential solution is the surgical light blade (SLB), a malleable retractor incorporating a flat fiberoptic bundle along its surface. The SLB provides intense illumination within the surgical field without decreasing the amount of limited operating space. A prototype of the SLB was tested in six patients. Results suggest that with further development the SLB could become useful for intracranial microneurosurgery.

Keywords

biomedical equipment; brain; optical fibres; optical microscopy; surgery; coaxial microscope light sources; flat fiberoptic bundle; illuminating retractor; intense illumination; intracranial microneurosurgery; limited operating space; malleable retractor; medical instrumentation; suboptimal illumination; surgical light blade; Blades; Coaxial components; Light sources; Lighting; Microscopy; Optical fiber cables; Optical fiber testing; Prototypes; Surgery; Visualization; Brain Diseases; Equipment Design; Fiber Optics; Humans; Lighting; Microscopy; Microsurgery; Neurosurgery;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Biomedical Engineering, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9294

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/10.650367

Filename

650367