The brain surgeon can navigate surgical equipment with millimetre-precision thanks to ultrasound images on a screen. Photo: SINTEF Techology and Society

The brain surgeon can navigate surgical equipment with millimetre precision thanks to ultrasound images on a screen.

The surgeon can "see" the inside of the patients' brain thanks to three-dimensional images.

The 3D ultrasound images give updated descriptions of the brain so that the surgeon can navigate equipment with high precision.

The operating technique has several advantages, such that

• it is easier to locate the tumour
• it is more likely to remove more of the tumour
• there is less chance of damaging normal brain tissue

The technology has been developed through close cooperation between engineers and doctors at the National Center for 3D Ultrasound in Surgery in Trondheim, and has been commercialized by SONOWAND AS.