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ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER
Abelman, Frayne, &Schwab
This Week in Intellectual Property History for the Week of December 20, 2010
On December 25, 1960 a Christmas gift inspired a significant advancement in the treatment of individuals with numerous types of brain disorders.
On that day, Dr. Irving Cooper a neurosurgeon practicing out of St. Barnabas Hospital in New York City received a Christmas gift - a wine bottle opener which lifted the cork by injecting carbon dioxide gas into the bottle. He observed the gas was very cold when released and he could direct small squirts from it to freeze tiny areas on the palm of his hand and watch them thaw. He also observed the freezing effect was very localized and isolated from the surrounding tissue.
From this inspiration, Dr. Cooper developed a new surgical process for operating on the brain called cryosurgery (from the Greek kryos for cold or frost). The procedure called for a cryoprobe, a slim stainless steel tube with a refrigerated tip from which liquid nitrogen flowed to be inserted into the brain first to deaden, and then freeze, tremor-causing brain cells or tumors. In November 1961 Dr. Cooper first performed cryosurgery. Using the cryoprobe, or "ice scalpel," he penetrated deep into the brain and destroyed by freezing the diseased cells that created severe muscle tension in his patient.
The invention created a new field of surgery which today has applications for numerous other areas of the body. The technique has been proven to aid paralytics, victims of deep-seated brain tumors, persons suffering from cataracts and victims of various diseases such as glaucoma, Parkinson's Disease, breast cancer, liver cancer and prostate cancer as well.
