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New brain tumor technology helps man who took two bullets to the head return to normal life
- New York Daily News - June 19, 2011 BY PATRICE O'SHAUGHNESSY
 Jesus Barrios was shot twice in the head, with one bullet passing through and leaving staple-sized fragments in his brain. He faced a future of seizures, infection and vision loss because it's too risky to remove the specks.
But Dr. Narayan Sundaresan, chief neurosurgeon at Lincoln Hospital, decided to try a new technology for brain tumors on Barrios - the first-ever such use on a gunshot victim - and was able to extract the fragments.
Two months later, the 29-year-old Barrios is returning to work as a Bronx building super and enjoying life with his wife, Krystal and son, Ethan. "I'm great," he said. "I only have a little pain; I still have one fragment in my jaw. My vision is getting better. My boy is 6 years old
... I didn't know if I would ever see him again."
"He has an excellent prognosis,"
Sundaresan said.
Vycor Medical Inc., the company that makes the ViewSite Brain Access System Sundaresan used, hadn't envisioned it for this use. Some 60 hospitals nationwide have the product.
"We were somewhat surprised," said Vycor's president, Ken Coviello. "We tried to design a product for deep brain access, to reach deep targets, small tumors, hematomas.
"Bullets were never on the radar. This is the first bullet to be removed."
Coviello said the breakthrough use has wartime implications, for use at frontline hospitals to stabilize patients.
Barrios said he's glad the procedure may help soldiers on distant battlefields, as well as city shooting victims. "That's great, really great," he said.
"Unfortunately, we have many gunshot victims," said Sundaresan, who made headlines two years ago when he saved Vada Vasquez, a teenage girl hit in the head by a stray bullet.
On April 8, police responded to a Tinton Ave. building in the Bronx and found Barrios and his friend, Giovanni Rivera, both shot in the head.
Rivera died at Lincoln and Barrios was rushed into surgery.
"One bullet went from one side to the other and left fragments deep in the brain,"
Sundaresan said.
"I wanted to remove them because they would cause seizures and they cause tremendous problems; MRIs can't be done. The problem always has been that you have to go through normal tissue and hunt for pellets, causing trauma to the brain."
Lincoln had recently acquired the Vycor product and Sundaresan used it on Barrios.
The technology looks like a speculum, a tube.
"You look through it with endoscope, it's married to a computer that guides the passage so you can see into the depths, it shows us which direction to take," the surgeon said.
One fragment in the right side was close to the sinus and another was in the left side where the visual cortex resides. He removed them both.
"We would not have attempted this without this technology," Sundaresan said. "It's very exciting."
Read the Article on the NY Daily News site
Images of ViewSite™ usage by Dr. John
Ragheb, Miami Children's Hospital
Take a look at the images of the ViewSite
usage by Dr. John Ragheb, Miami Children's Hospital.
Click on an image to see full size picture
Vycor ViewSite™ Journal of Neurosurgery
Debut
 After
many successful brain surgery procedures and increasing demand, Vycor
Medical has launched the ViewSite™ Brain Access System at the recent
Congress for Neurological Surgeons (CNS) in Orlando, Florida to a very
receptive audience. Vycor Medical will continue to print this full page
advertisement because it as distinctive and prudent as the ViewSite
itself. Look for ViewSite in future issues of the Journal of
Neurosurgery. Click on Image for a larger view.
Vycor’s Distributor in Italy and the Italian Congress of
Neurosurgeons
 Vycor
Medical Inc. is proud to have formal representation throughout Italy for
its flagship product – The Vycor ViewSite™ Brain Access System with the
renowned company of Tekmed Instruments S.P.A. based in Milan, Italy. The Tekmed group has been established for over 31 years in neurosurgery and
other key clinical markets and offers many high-tech lines and products.
Tekmed operates throughout Italy via a widespread commercial network to
all hospitals and clinics.
 Tekmed
also had a very successful appearance at the recent Italian Congress of
Neurosurgeons on November 6-8 in Udine, Italy; due in part to the
introduction of the ViewSite to a receptive audience of neurosurgeons.
“It was a very successful show for us and the ViewSite in particular
obtained great success among Italian neurosurgeons” acknowledges Claudio
Settembre, Product Manager for Tekmed. The features of the ViewSite are
capturing attention wherever it is shown and we are pleased that the
neurosurgeons in Italy, as in other countries, have recognized the many
benefits derived from its use.
Link to the TekMed Instruments S.P.A website
Vycor ViewSite™ Ad in Surgical Products
Magazine
 Vycor Medical's
VBAS (ViewSite Brain Access System) ad was featured in the September
2008 issue of Surgical Products Magazine. Click on Image for a larger view.
Vycor Medical Exhibits at CNS
 Vycor Medical Inc
made a strong debut at the 2008 Congress of Neurological Surgeons in
September at Orlando, FL. Vycor Medical
exhibited its full line of the ViewSite Brain Access System (VBAS). The VBAS is used by some of the leading clinicians to gain a direct visual
and operable path to the target site. In addition to the product line,
Vycor Medical also hosted presentations of clinical case experience
from those clinicians who are using the VBAS.
Click here to view the CNS 2008
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