Brain Surgery in 3-D

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Neurosurgeons now have a new approach to brain surgery using the same 3-D glasses you'd put on at an IMAX movie theater.

Keeping up with his son was almost impossible for Lenin Cuevas last year when his vision began to fail.

Cuevas told ABC30, "I started seeing flashing lights. And then it came to a point that my wife and my mother-in-law had to drive me to work."

Lenin's doctor told him it was stress, but his vision kept getting worse.

Cuevas told ABC30, "I was kind of scared that I would go blind."

A MRI revealed a golf ball sized tumor pressing up against his optic nerve. Lenin had lost 80 percent of his vision in his right eye and nearly half in his left.

That's when he was referred to James Chandler MD a Neurosurgeon at Northwestern Medicine and a new 3D mini microscope for surgery.

Chandler told ABC30, "We gain that depth perception, thereby potentially having a more efficient and safer surgical experience."

The surgery is done entirely through the nose with no visible scars. Surgeons wear 3-D glasses like the ones you wear to watch a movie.

Chandler told ABC30, "Once we put on the 3-D glasses, it's as though we are right there working in the brain."

Just three months after Lenin's surgery, his vision has returned. Now he can focus on making new memories with his son.

Lenin says he's glad he kept pushing for a diagnosis because surgeons told him his blindness would have been permanent if he'd waited any longer for surgery.

Patients undergoing the new approach to surgery are out of the hospital within a day or two and recovery time at home is just days instead of weeks.

If you would like more information, please contact:

Sheila Galloro

Senior Media Relations Associate

Northwestern Memorial Hospital

312-926-0735

sgalloro@nmh.org