This undated photograph, released on April 18, 2010, shows a conformal, neural electrode array wrapped onto a model of the brain. (Xinhua/Reuters File Photo)
LOS ANGELES, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. doctor has successfully removed a terminal brain tumor from a little boy's brain stem by using a "magic eraser," it was announced on Tuesday.
Doctor Amin Kassam used the device, called a Nico Myriad, to remove the tumor from a Belgian boy's brain system, said Saint John 's Health Center in Santa Monica near Los Angeles.
The boy, identified only as Tristan, was facing certain death from a chordoma, a rare, malignant brain tumor, according to the hospital.
The tumor had wrapped around the 4-year-old's brain stem, making it impossible to use normal surgical techniques to save the child's life, the hospital said.
Kassam went to Belgium with the newfangled device, which is described as an automated device that can cut the tumor up into microscopic strands without producing heat.
The Myriad device was introduced to the United States about a year ago, and Kassam is one of the few neurosurgeons trained to use one.
The device has a bendable cutting tip tha allows surgeons to access hard-to-reach tumor sites, and the child's tumor removal was performed through the child's nostril, taking a team of surgeons 13 hours.
The "magic eraser" provides precise tissue shaving on or near critical body parts, like blood vessels and nerves, and also vacuums tumor tissue into a collection chamber for laboratory evaluation, the hospital said.
Although chordomas are slow-growing, they can cause pain, paralysis, problems with vision, swallowing and death.
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