BrightMatter™ Robot-Assisted Brain Surgery

Imagine your doctor being able to see details of your brain down to an individual blood cell. That’s the reality of BrightMatter, a robot-assisted brain surgery system at the Hermelin Brain Tumor Center.

If you’ve been told surgery is not an option — that your tumor is “inoperable” because of its location in your brain — surgery may now be possible. Henry Ford Hospital is the first in Michigan, and one of the first in the United States, to offer BrightMatter robot-assisted brain surgery.

Learn more about our other technologies for brain tumor surgery.

Unprecedented views, greater precision and faster recovery after brain tumor surgery

BrightMatter’s advanced technology lets our surgeons see brain tumors and surrounding tissue in an entirely new way. The system helps them preserve parts of your brain important for body movement, speech, strength and vision. It also shortens your recovery after brain tumor surgery and reduces your chance of complications.

BrightMatter allows your surgeon to make small, targeted incisions to reach your brain tumor while avoiding important command centers in your brain. BrightMatter makes your brain surgery safer and more effective in several ways:

• Better view of your brain tumor: BrightMatter provides highly detailed images of your brain, as close as an actual red blood cell travelling through an artery. A high-powered digital microscope has a larger and deeper field of view, and more natural color. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), previously only available for research purposes, gives visuals of complex white matter tracts in the brain. 
• Greater surgical precision: BrightMatter’s Modus V robotically controlled digital microscope was developed from technology used on the International Space Station. The robotic arm is equipped with sophisticated lighting and linked to sensors in the surgeon’s tools. The sensors let surgeons know if their instruments are properly aligned as they move forward in your brain.