An Austrian professor has successfully performed the world’s first brain tumor removal by laser technology using an instrument developed in Israel. The operation was carried out on a 56-year-old man by Prof. Fritz Heppner of the Graz University’s neuro-surgical division.
The “carbon-dioxide laser scalpel” was developed by Prof. Isaac Kaplan of the plastic surgery department at Israel’s Bailinson Hospital in Tel Aviv. Heppner told the JTA the instrument had been used for other operations but this was the first time it was employed for removing a brain tumor.
Although the operation can be carried out by conventional methods, laser technology offers big advantages. Heppner said. “It provides completely smooth cutting edges, and results in minimum destruction of healthy tissue. In cancerous diseases it causes evaporation of tumor deposits not visible to the naked eye which sometimes remain behind and cause a recurrence.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
