NORFOLK, Va., (WVEC) -- Neurosurgeons at Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center are using new technology that will change the way doctors practice medicine.
It's called BrightMatter by Canadian company Synaptic Medical.
It gives doctors an improved visualization during surgery. It makes it safer for surgeons to safely operate on patients with tumors or other lesions near the brain.
It's a surgical robotic arm with a high-powered digital microscope.
Until now hospital officials said surgeons would have to rely on a traditional optical microscope to view the brain during surgery, but BrightMatter changed all that.
Neurosurgeon Joseph Koen is putting it to use.
"We've had sort of surgical navigation, we've had 3D MRI for a while, but this ... technology allows me to see the fibers around the tumor and that's something we could never see before," he said.
The real time, robotic imaging technology provides twice the resolution of a traditional microscope according to its creator.
The robotic arm follows the instruments the surgeon is using through motion sensors and a foot pedal.
DePaul is the second hospital in Virginia to have BrightMatter and the only hospital in Hampton Roads.
"It allows the surgery to be much more safe, and much more efficient. And we can develop a surgical plan that is really much more detailed than we ever could before," Koen said.