Technical approaches to identification and stereotactic reduction of tumor burden

This report describes a system for the precision resection of deep-seated intracranial neoplasms. A cumputer monitored stereotactically directed carbon dioxide laser is utilized to vaporize intracranial tumors whose volumes have been reconstructed from computed tomography and magnetic resonance and data bases. The position of the laser is monitored on a computer graphics terminal in reference to planar slices through the tumor, reformatted orthogonal to the surgical approach. This procedure has been performed on 51 patients with satisfactory postoperative neurologic results. The system provides precise surgical control in three dimensional space for the safe precision resection of significant amounts of intra-axial neoplasms as demonstrated by postoperative contrast enhanced computed tomography.