The BeamPath NEURO System: First Flexible CO2 Laser Scalpel

OmniGuide, Inc. (Cambridge, MA) has recently announced their new BeamPath NEURO™ flexible CO2 laser for neurosurgery. According to the company, it is the first flexible CO2 laser scalpel out there. The big idea is to allow neurosurgeons to perform precise dissection, cutting, debulking, and microvascular coagulation using a hand-held, no-touch instrument, that is portable and flexible.
Robert F. Spetzler, M.D., F.A.C.S., Director, Barrow Neurological Institute, J.N. Harbor Chairman of Neurological Surgery in Phoenix, is quoted in the press release: “Neurosurgeons have long realized the benefits of CO2 lasers for microsurgery, but the traditional means of delivering the laser were too rigid and unwieldy for microsurgery, limiting lasers’ use in our specialty, A flexible CO2 laser is ideal for removing small tumors that are in close proximity to critical structures, including very sensitive areas of the brain and spinal cord, as well as for tumors in deep holes, when the most precise, no-touch surgical tool is essential. A flexible CO2 laser is ideal for removing small tumors that are in close proximity to critical structures, including very sensitive areas of the brain and spinal cord, as well as for tumors in deep holes, when the most precise, no-touch surgical tool is essential.”
The BeamPath NEURO system is designed to be used for various central nervous system (CNS) procedures, including intracranial tumor reserctions, spine tumor surgeries and transnasal pituitary procedures.
More about the company’s proprietary BeamPath™ technology:

OmniGuide’s BeamPath™ photonic bandgap fibers are the world’s first solid state structure-based transmitters. Within each fiber, over forty microscopic layers of alternating glass and polymer form a reflective system known as a Bragg diffraction grating. The wavelength of light transmitted by this structure is a function of the thickness of the glass/ polymer bi-layers, which can be easily varied. Thus the BeamPath™ fibers can be scaled to channel different wavelengths of light. This approach represents a new paradigm in the field of light transmission, and resolves all of the limitations inherent in conventional fiber optics.
OmniGuide has also mastered a manufacturing process through which semiconductor/ polymer multi-layers can be manufactured in a scalable manner, to tolerances that were previously seen only in the semiconductor industry. The manufacturing breakthrough that made this possible is a system of drawing out a foot-long “preform” with millimeter-thick layers, into hundreds of meters of fiber with micron-thick layers.

Press release: OmniGuide Introduces The BeamPath Neuro(TM): A CO2 Laser Fiber for Brain And Spine Surgery…
Product page: BeamPath NEURO System…
Product brochure: BeamPath NEURO System… (.pdf)