Hadassah gets world’s top surgical microscope
Hadassah Ein Kerem announced Wednesday that its neurosurgery department has begun using the world’s most sophisticated surgical microscope, the KINEVO 900.
Manufactured by the German optical company Zeiss, the microscope features a visualization system allowing surgeons to observe tumors in high-resolution without an eyepiece; and a robotically-controlled navigation system that facilitates precise microsurgery.
Dr. Sergey Spektor, the director of the Skull Base Surgery Center of Hadassah’s neurosurgery department, told The Jerusalem Post that microscopes play a critical role in brain operations.
“Neurosurgery is a microscopic challenge… We need very good quality magnification, [for] crisp images, in order to see what we are doing,” he said. “But nowadays, [a] microscope is not only [used for] magnification, [as a] magnifying glass; it is also an instrument which is… [a part of] the robotic operative system neurosurgery].”
He praised the quality of the KINEVO 900’s cameras, as well as the microscope’s “wonderful mechanics.” While weighing more than 500 kg., the microscope remains “completely balanced” and thus easy for surgeons to operate during procedures, he said. [used in
Spektor added the machine enables surgeons to view images an external screen rather than looking through the eyepiece, and to view those images in 3D.
The hospital’s press release clarified that “the surgeon and those viewing the surgery view the surgical field with 3D glasses, as in the movies.”
Spektor said that Hadassah Ein Kerem has two older microscopes in use for neurosurgery, in addition to the KINEVO 900.
“We are absolutely wellequipped now,” he said. “It’s a great pleasure to work with really good and newly-developed equipment. It makes our work more interesting… and it’s good for the patients.”