New Surgery (Documentary Film)
For the first time, I encountered surgery at the age of 8 when my father took me to his work at the hospital for a summer internship. Back then, in the eighties, surgery underwent significant changes. Large incisions were replaced by small openings that surgeons used to bring people back to life, using fine instruments under the control of video cameras, X-rays, ultrasound, or their combination.
But in order to reach the desired area, it was necessary to damage the tissues. Therefore, the surgeon’s intervention immediately became irreversible, regardless of whether they acted correctly or not.
And this is precisely what shaped the features of future surgery, where the surgeon’s scalpel will become firm and sharp only when the surgeon gives it the right command. It is even possible that the scalpel of the future will appear directly in the necessary place from the inside, without cutting from the outside…
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What is this movie about?
This documentary film was created to help people. Society should be aware of the latest treatment methods, without pain and incisions, and successful stories should inspire others to create new things and make the world a better place.
That’s why I made this documentary about the opening of the first Neurosurgical Center for Non-Invasive Neurosurgery in Russia using MRI-guided focused ultrasound. The method is often called MRgFUS or MRgFUS, and it is also known as Neuravive treatment
Surgery of the Future Here and Now
This method embodies the characteristics of future surgery. No scalpel or incisions are required; the impact on the brain occurs with unprecedented precision exactly where needed! This new method for Russia truly works wonders: in one day, it can relieve the tremor of people with Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, eliminate manifestations of dystonia, and remove the stiffness that interferes with life, which develops in many of these conditions.
One of the revolutionary features of the innovative neurosurgical method is its predictability. This is precisely why the number of complications is incredibly low. Even before performing the surgical intervention, the surgeon has the opportunity “test ” the result of future exposure, verify it in advance. MRgFUS allows “simulate ” the effect of the upcoming intervention and see firsthand what consequences it will lead to. Only after ensuring that it will achieve the desired result and not cause serious complications, the surgeon performs irreversible surgical intervention
In addition, I would like to show how a few passionate innovators can move the world forward.
In conclusion, I would like to say that I believe successful examples of good deeds inspire others. See for yourself and feel the inspiration!
Our History
When I was a little girl, I had a dream of becoming a bioengineer who would create interesting things to help patients. One of these things could be a small robot that could be inserted into a blood vessel in the arm. Using a joystick, you would guide it to the brain and remove a tumor.
I remember the day we operated on a craniopharyngioma in an eight-year-old boy. After spending eight hours reaching this tumor and three to four hours removing it, I thought there must be a device that would make this work easier and faster, without pain and blood. So that we wouldn’t have to resort to anesthesia and could communicate with the patient. To have reliable and controllable technology.
And during my internship in the USA, I saw a technology called focused ultrasound and witnessed its effect. I thought, this is my childhood dream!
FUS is focused ultrasound exposure. When we use multiple ultrasound sources and focus them at one point with special equipment, we achieve a concentration of powerful energy in one tiny spot. We use this energy to heat the target. We heat it to a specific temperature. There is a safe temperature threshold where the cell is not destroyed but loses its function for a period of two to four minutes. The cell can be heated to a therapeutic temperature without protein denaturation occurring. This helps us ensure that we are in the right place and the treatment remains safe.
I thought about several components of this device for many years. And then I decided that I should fulfill my personal dream.
The journey from the beginning to the first operation took several years. From 2018 to 2020, we worked diligently to bring this idea to life and acquire the necessary equipment. This is a business, a project, an investment project, involving the search for investors, funding, and location. Searching for suppliers. This is the design project of the chosen location.
I mean, it’s a huge job when you don’t count the hours, you just work and feel that you need to take just one small step. A small step and then everything will work out.
And finally, our Center has received its license.
We were ready to launch our project in March at the beginning of 2020. But unexpectedly, something unforeseen happened. COVID-19 pandemic. International level emergency. The World Health Organization is ready to convene an extraordinary meeting of the emergency committee. It has been established that the causative agent of viral pneumonia of unknown origin in Wuhan is a new coronavirus. Previously, it was believed that the virus was not transmitted from person to person, but it has now been officially announced that it is.
Russia temporarily closed its borders to contain the spread of the virus. The borders were open for entry only to our citizens who were evacuated from various countries according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs lists.
No one knew how long we would be under isolation. How long will this last? And will there ever be an end to this dire situation? We had about twenty patients on our list with whom we started working last year, and each of these patients was eagerly awaiting their surgery.
Quarantine couldn’t stop us. Cardiovascular surgeons from Ufa, together with a professor from Italy, performed an online heart surgery. At the Republican Cardiology Center, Professor Igor Buzaev conducted a joint operation with Professor Eustachio Onorato.
By the operating table, in the cardio and radiology room, stands a unique team of doctors, surgeons, engineers, and hybrid imaging specialists. Professor Eustachio Onorato from Italy remotely consults Russian colleagues via video call. The operation was successful. The patient survived, and the event received significant media attention. It was discussed on every TV channel, and we decided that this is an opportunity to showcase INSIGHTEC (company that manufactured equipment for MRgFUS), that here and now, in XXI century, digital technologies in medicine have advanced to the point where even complex surgeries can be performed without the physical presence of a person on site
Therefore, we asked the company to organize a training session to demonstrate how the equipment works and how to use it correctly.
Our MRI room and dispatch center turned into a broadcasting studio with multiple cameras. We established a connection, and each piece of equipment went online. Specialists from other countries had the opportunity not just to observe, but they could enter the system and perform the treatment for us if we couldn’t manage. After brief deliberation, the company organized a meeting with us and conducted training, teaching us to work on phantoms. After twenty to thirty successful operations on phantoms, none of which were harmed, we sent another letter to the company and requested to attempt therapy for the first live patient. Some time later, we received a positive response, and on May 5, 2020, we performed surgery on our first patient.
I will tell everyone I know, all my friends and relatives, that there are people who can help us. Thank you very much! To all of you.
In the V.S. Buzaev International Medical Centre®, more than 200 operations have already been performed – this is the experience of over 200 happy patients who have been relieved from tremor.
Thanks to the work of ambitious people, the time has come when surgeries can be performed without a single incision, without pain, and with a guarantee of the highest quality.
Treatment with MRI-guided focused ultrasound is like a gentle scalpel that appears inside and becomes sharp only when the surgeon is certain that the procedure is going according to plan.
And the center’s team is already striving to conquer new frontiers of modern non-invasive surgery.
Rezida Galimova, the first neurosurgeon in Russia to master surgery with focused ultrasound.
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