Monteris Medical has announced that its NeuroBlate System, a minimally invasive robotic laser thermotherapy tool for treating neurological lesions, has earned a gold medal product award in the “Surgical Equipment, Instruments, and Supplies” category of the 2015 Medical Design Excellence Awards (MDEA). The 2015 MDEA winners were announced at the MDEA Ceremony held on June 9, 2015 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, in conjunction with the MD&M East Event.

The MDEAs are considered to be one of the medical technology industry’s premier design competitions, recognizing high-caliber medical devices that save lives, improve patient healthcare, and transform medical technology. Finalists are judged on criteria that include design and engineering innovation, patient benefits, and functional innovation.

With the minimally invasive NeuroBlate surgical system, a surgeon makes a small hole in the skull, approximately as wide as a pencil. A small probe is then used to deliver laser light energy to heat and destroy the targeted tissue. The NeuroBlate system combines magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and software-based visualization to allow surgeons to remotely ablate lesions in many locations in the brain, at the surface or deep inside, through a computer module. An MRI-compatible robotic probe driver helps the surgeon precisely guide the laser probe to the site and apply heat to it in controlled amounts, until the targeted tissue is destroyed.

“We are honored to receive the 2015 Medical Design Excellence Award for our innovative NeuroBlate System,” said John Schellhorn, president and CEO of Monteris Medical. “NeuroBlate is providing surgeons with an additional therapeutic modality for treating thousands of patients diagnosed with neurological diseases and intracranial lesions each year, and we are proud to be recognized alongside so many other outstanding medical technology companies.”

The NeuroBlate system is FDA-cleared to ablate, necrotize, or coagulate soft tissue encountered in the discipline of neurosurgery through the application of laser thermotherapy. The company reports that with its minimally invasive approach, the system has shown results analogous to open surgery. Patients undergoing procedures with the NeuroBlate system may experience less pain compared with those undergoing open surgery procedures, as well as shorter hospital stays.

For more information about the NeuroBlate System, visit the Monteris website.