Your brain isn’t like any other part of your body. It’s what makes you, well, you. The brain is where your spouse’s face is recognized, your children's and grandchildren’s names are stored, and your personality lives. And when something goes wrong inside of your brain – a tumour, a bleed, a clot – surgery can quickly become your only chance.

But, for many patients, that surgery carries a frightening truth… reaching what’s wrong can mean passing through healthy brain tissue. That means the fight to save your life can also carry the risk of changing who you are – forever.

At the Regina General Hospital, our neurosurgical team is preparing to introduce new breakthrough systems called BrainPath and NICO Myriad – two technologies that work together to change how surgeons operate on the brain.

BrainPath was specifically designed to reach and treat brain tumours, blood clots, and other abnormalities that were previously considered inoperable due to their location deep within the brain. Instead of cutting through healthy tissue, BrainPath follows the brain’s natural folds. It gently creates a corridor to the problem, moving aside brain tissue rather than damaging it, helping protect critical functions like speech, movement and memory. 

Once that pathway is created, the NICO Myriad uses suction and automated cutting without heat to carefully remove tumours or clots, reducing the risk of injury to the surrounding healthy tissue. The system also provides white and blue light to help surgeons clearly see diseased tissue and identify exact tumour margins. This added clarity helps ensure more complete tumour removal and can reduce the need for repeat surgeries.

For southern Saskatchewan patients, this means:

• Surgeons can operate through a much smaller opening in the skull

• Less bleeding, swelling, and trauma to the brain

• Safer surgery with fewer complications

• Faster recovery times — close to home, surrounded by loved ones

In simple terms, BrainPath and NICO Myriad give hope to people facing brain surgery – not just hope of survival, but of returning to the life they knew.

One of the physicians who will use this technology here in Regina is Dr. Aisha Ghare, a highly trained neurosurgeon recruited to our community in 2024. According to Dr. Ghare:

“For patients, this technology can mean the difference between a long, difficult recovery and getting back to their lives sooner. It allows us to treat complex brain conditions more safely by reducing injury to healthy brain tissue. It’s now becoming established in top neurosurgical centres across the U.K., Europe, and the United States — and thanks to donor support, our patients can benefit from that same level of innovation, right here at home.”

Every year, our skilled neurosurgeons perform over 200 brain surgeries, to remove tumours, cysts, blood clots and to treat swelling and pressure around the brain caused by traumatic brain injury, severe strokes and other serious conditions.  Hospitals of Regina Foundation has committed to raise $350,000, to bring BrainPath and the NICO Myriad to the Regina General Hospital.

Patients are depending on all of us to help protect speech, memory, independence, and, yes, lives by acting now to help bring safer, less invasive, neurosurgical care to Regina. Thanks to the generosity of our southern Saskatchewan community, our neurosurgeons can deliver the best care possible, right here close to home.