Ochsner Medical Center-Kenner is the first hospital in the south Louisiana region to be equipped with a surgical device called a NanoKnife that is used to eliminate malignant tumors.
“There are only about a dozen of these devises in use in the entire country. In the last year, we have used the NanoKnife in about 50 patients, treating over 100 malignant tumors and we have been extremely pleased by the results,” says J. Philip Boudreaux, MD, FACS, Professor of Surgery, LSU Health Sciences Center, at the combined LSU/Ochsner-Kenner’s Neuroendocrine Tumor Program.
Patient Benefits
Prior to acquisition of the NanoKnife, the primary method for destroying most malignant tumors that could not be removed employed a microwave-energy device which literally cooked the tumor until it was dead. The problem was that if the tumor was located next to a crucial blood vessel or structure within an organ, such as within the liver or pancreas, the microwave cooked that vital structure also. Thus, tumors that were located in critical areas could not be treated for fear of collateral damage to important vital organs, until, that is, the advent of the NanoKnife.
How The NanoKnife Works
The NanoKnife, which isn’t in actuality a knife at all, uses very high electric voltage dispensed in fractions of a second at very low currents (hence the reference to nanoseconds) to destroy tumors. Patients feel no pain from the procedure and their recoveries are relatively quick when the procedure can be performed non-invasively in selected patients.
Neuroendocrine Tumor Program
This new technology is now being used by the neuroendocrine tumor program at Ochsner Kenner, anationally recognized entity.
“As stories about the NanoKnife appear on the Internet we have been getting calls from patients with malignant tumors in all 50 states and in foreign nations asking if they can come to Ochsner-Kenner for evaluation and, hopefully, treatment with the NanoKnife. Among the reasons that Ochsner-Kenner is the perfect hospital to have a NanoKnife are our proximity to a regional airport and to the interstate,and our multidisciplinary team approach to patient care” said Dr. Boudreaux.
