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A research team of the neurosurgery department of Pyongyang University of Medical Sciences has recently established several new cutting-edge surgical methods, which are being introduced into clinical practice and education.

Among them is a new surgical method of removing pituitary tumours.

In the past, pituitary tumour surgery was a major operation that involved cutting a part of the skull out and removing tumour tissues and, therefore, it was associated with a significant physical burden on patients.

This led to the advent of an advanced surgical method of removing tumours by inserting an endoscopic device into a small hole in the skull to look into the brain, but this technique was also unable to avoid invasion of normal brain tissues during surgery.

“The surgical method completed by our research team is a medical technique of extracting tumours by inserting an endoscopic instrument through the nose without damaging the skull,” said Kim Yong Dok, head of the department.

According to him, the core of this technique is how to precisely reach the pituitary tumour through the nose and remove it. The department has successfully solved this technical problem, raising the success rate of the surgical method to nearly 100 percent.

The research team also completed an advanced surgical method for eliminating the source of trigeminal neuralgia and introduced it into clinical practice.

After intensively studying the pathological relations of trigeminal neuralgia which is caused when a trigeminal nerve sticks to an artery, the research team completed an operation method which can separate nerves from arteries endoscopically without damaging the skull.

In addition, the department developed a new surgical method of using a microscope in the operations on slipped disk and cervical spondylosis.

Especially, the operation of cervical spondylosis using a microscope was pioneered by the research team in the country.

According to the deputy director in charge of technical affairs of the Pyongyang University of Medical Sciences Hospital, the surgical treatment methods completed by them are recognized as advanced medical technologies in the field of neurosurgery worldwide at present.