Minimally invasive surgery is defined in neurosurgery as “procedures that are less invasive than open surgery for the same purpose”. For this purpose, surgical procedures with small opening and incision are used instead of a large surgical incision and opening. The use of minimally invasive surgery in neurosurgery is quite longstanding. In traditional open surgery, surgeons make large incisions to operate on the area of disease. With minimally invasive surgery, they can direct advanced video equipment through tubes inserted through small holes or a small incision into the surgical field and perform surgery through these tubes. The aim is to achieve smaller incisions, less pain, lower risk of infection, shorter hospitalization, faster recovery and less blood loss.

Stereotaxy

Thanks to stereotaxy, a three-dimensional calculation is made with an instrument attached to the patient’s head and imaging methods using XYZ planes on it. Surgical procedures are then performed in accordance with the coordinates through a burr drilled into the skull. In this way, a brain pacemaker can be implanted and biopsies can be taken from deep and dangerous areas of the brain.

Endoscopy

Endoscopes are small tubes. Cameras that allow us to see the surgical field and surgical instruments that allow us to perform the surgery usually pass through them. With these advanced instruments, the cavities of the brain can be entered through an incision the size of a pushpin head and the structures inside can be observed. Surgical instruments can cut tissue, take samples, destroy abnormal tissue or tumors with little damage to the normal brain. Endoscopes are used in the treatment of hydrocephalus and in the diagnosis and treatment of brain tumors.