Surgeons at Mint Hill clinic can perform brain surgery without anesthesia, incisions

MINT HILL, N.C. — Surgeons in the Charlotte area are performing brain surgery without anesthesia or incisions, with patients out of the hospital in just over an hour.

Novant Health’s head of Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery, Dr. Charles Munyon, said 79-year-old Arnold Soloman is the perfect candidate for the innovative procedure -- magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound.

“We are essentially doing surgery on the brain but without having to use a scalpel,” Munyon told Channel 9.

[ALSO READ: New innovative treatment at Novant Health helps patients battling cancer in Charlotte]

Soloman has a medical condition, essential tremors, which affects his hands.

“It involves an uncontrolled shaking of the arm and hand, which tends to become worse when people are stressed,” Munyon said.

Soloman said the last 20 years have been very difficult. But after the short surgery, his perspective has changed.

“I think it’s going to change my outlook on life,” Soloman said. “I really think it will.”

>> In the video at the top of this webpage, Channel 9 joins Soloman for his procedure at the Novant Health clinic, which is the only place in the Carolinas performing the surgery.

(Watch the video below: Girl using lemonade stand to fund brain surgery in recovery)