Stereotactic surgery or stereotaxy (not to be confused with the virtuality concept of stereotaxy) is a minimally invasive form of surgical intervention which makes use of a three-dimensional coordinate system to locate small targets inside the body and to perform on them some action such as ablation, biopsy, lesion, injection, stimulation, implantation, radiosurgery (SRS) etc.
In theory, any organ system inside the body can be subjected to stereotactic surgery. However, difficulties in setting up a reliable frame of reference (such as bone landmarks which bear a constant spatial relation to soft tissues) mean that its applications have been limited to brain surgery. Besides the brain, biopsy and surgery of the breast are done routinely to locate, sample (biopsy) and remove tissue. Plain X-ray images (radiographic mammography), computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging can be used to guide the procedure.
"Stereotactic" (another accepted spelling is "stereotaxic") stems from the Greek "stereo" (solid) and "taxis" (arrangement, order).
Read more about Stereotactic Surgery: History, How It Works, Stereotactic Surgery Research in Rodents
Famous quotes containing the word surgery:
“Ever since surgery began, man’s destiny has been to suffer, in order that he might be cured. And no one can change that, gentlemen.”
—Jean Scott Rogers, and Robert Day. Mr. Blount (Frank Pettingell)