Sound Surgery

Switzerland does more than Ikea.

Swiss scientists have performed ultrasonic surgery on 9 patients that h ave survived this procedure (so far).

In this case study, the different patients had severe debilitating pain and had surgery performed on the thalamus.

Ultrasound beams were directed at a specific part of the brain and then focused to an area "about the size of a rice grain." This rice grain-sized area is then zapped, through the intact skull and scalp, where it heats up brain tissue to ~130F, effectively killing the surrounding cells. Just to make sure they don't slice an entire hemisphere off, surgeons are armed with magnetic resonance scanners and thermal imagers of the brain.

As you can see, this newer technology allows more precision, accuracy and faster healing time. There is no physical surgery; only the targeted area is laser'd.

This is a huge improvement over the old type of surgery which was the jam a radio probe into the skull or with radiation treatments on the affected area. I think I prefer the lasers.