Transparent skull window has promise for brain condition diagnosis and treatment

People with a wide range of brain disorders could benefit from the development of a transparent material that can be implanted into the skull to allow lasers to be used in diagnostics and therapy without causing any adverse immune response.

Based on a ceramic used commonly in bone implants, the material has been developed by materials scientists at the University of California at Riverside (UC Riverside) as part of a ongoing international project called ‘Window on the Brain’, the purpose of which is to develop a system by which therapy can be applied to the brain without the need for repeated craniotomies, operations which involve the removal of part of the skull that are traumatic for he patient and can carry the serious risk of infections.

‘Window on the Brain’ is intended to help improve the care of people with brain tumours, damage from stroke and neurodegenerative disorders. Rather than having to perform a craniotomy to access brain tissue directly, the idea is to place a single transparent implant of a rigid material that can still perform the skull’s protective function but allow laser energy to be used to selectively heat tissue as part of a therapy programme, to destroy diseased or cancerous tissue or cauterise damaged blood vessels that could cause cerebral haemorrhage.