Central Florida hospital now offering incision-less brain surgery
ORLANDO, Fla. - Imagine brain surgery without having to go under the knife.
Jen Stratton had incisionless brain surgery last week at UCF Lake Nona Medical Center to cure her essential tremor she had been living with since childhood.
"There was no pain," Stratton said. "No medication afterwards. There’s no cut on my head. My head is 100 percent whole."
The tremor caused her hands to shake, but the shaking is gone now.
"I can pick up a glass and take a sip and everyone’s not like, ‘Oh my gosh. What’s wrong with her?’" Stratton said.
UCF Lake Nona Medical Center is first hospital in Central Florida to offer incisionless brain surgery. The surgery can treat essential tremor and tremors caused by Parkinson’s disease.
Stratton is one of three patients who have gone through the procedure at the hospital so far. Neurosurgeon Dr. Nizam Razack performs the surgery using an MRI. It takes about three hours.
"So, what it involves is transferring energy to the brain, sound wave energy deep in the brain to heat that part of the brain up to create a lesion, like a mini stroke, if you will," Dr. Razack said. "By creating that lesion, we can control or stop the patient’s tremor."
The hospital has had other patients ask about the surgery recently.
"Who wants to have a hole made in their skull if they don’t have to?" Dr. Razack said.
Stratton said she open brain surgery was never an option for her.
"All of the different cures are worse than having a tremor," Stratton said. "So, I had to live with it, until now. I really felt like I could possibly be stuck with it and it would only get worse for the rest of my life. So, I had that sentence taken away from me. That life sentence is gone."