Wow... I really hope I didn't get to this thread too late that this just gets buried.<p>This is a classic example of hyperbolic reporting to try and show physicians as some kind of incompetent lot whereas this 'guy working in his basement with passion and talent' figured out how to hack the entire field of Medicine.<p>The fact is, nearly all Meningiomas are treated this way because they are overwhelmingly benign and the surgery to remove them is not. If the woman had lost her sight getting this surgery, then our Monday morning quarterbacking would've been entirely different... or not even reported. Also, surgeons in general SHOULD NOT improvise new techniques unless it's specifically warranted because their skill is in their muscle memory and if you upset what would otherwise be a routine craniotomy and turn it into something experimental, you are risking the chance of running into an unexpected complication.<p>Granted, Radiology can be imprecise at measuring progression of tumors but this is mostly because of inter-observer reliability, sampling errors, etc. that could easily be mitigated by a software-side solution. In fact, there's a lot of research into measuring lung tumors this way. However, issues related to the FDA needing to approve all the diagnostic technology involved are why these are not implemented more quickly--some nifty program to measure the volume of a tumor would probably be against the law to use in a diagnostic setting (IANAL though, I am a physician).<p>Edit: Another case in point, there is a great technique of placing a new Aortic (heart) valve in place using a catheter from a small puncture in an artery in the leg. This technique (seemingly paradoxically) has a GREATER risk of morbidity to the patient than the open heart surgery approach. There are many hypothesized reasons for this, but it is also a fact that the surgeons are simply better trained in the older open technique and its complications.