There is good news for patients of Parkinson’s, epilepsy, movement disorders and those who have cysts, abscesses or blood clots in the brain. Thanks to an indigenously developed stereotactic frame technology ‘3DR Stereotactic System’ to perform functional neurosurgery, patients with these conditions can now avail precision treatment at a third of the existing cost.

This technology, when fixed to the head, guides the surgeon to reach different, select and specific targets in the brain with precision. Stereotactic surgery is a minimally invasive form of surgical intervention which makes use of three-dimensional coordinates to locate small targets inside the brain and to perform procedures on them such as ablation, biopsy, injection, stimulation, implantation and radiosurgery.

Conceptualised by N.K. Venkataramana, founder chairman and chief neurosurgeon at Brains Hospital, and designed by Bengaluru-based biomedical engineers Sadashiva Bhat and Sharath V. Bhat, the technology was launched by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman here on Tuesday. Appreciating the teamwork of doctors, engineers and technicians involved in bringing out the technology, the Minister said Bengaluru is blessed with people who are ready to make ‘Make in India’ a reality.

Dr. Venkataramana said many such frames are available in the market but at a high cost. “As a result, it is prohibitively expensive for small and medium-scale hospitals to own the frames because of which treatment is out of reach for most people. Our technology is available at one-third of the existing cost,” he said.

Pointing out that stereotactic surgery is used for biopsy of a brain tumour that is either deep-seated or in an eloquent area, the doctor said, “We can also perfform unctional surgery for conditions like Parkinson’s disease, pain, epilepsy, movement disorders. Conditions like cysts, abscesses or blood clots can be treated by a minimally invasive method. Many implantable devices can be deployed into the brain as well.”