An Ommaya reservoir is an intraventricular

catheter In medicine, a catheter (/ˈkæθətər/) is a thin tubing (material), tube made from medical grade materials serving a broad range of functions. Catheters are medical devices that can be inserted in the body to treat diseases or perform a surgi ...

system that can be used for the aspiration of

cerebrospinal fluid Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a clear, colorless body fluid found within the tissue that surrounds the brain and spinal cord of all vertebrates. CSF is produced by specialised ependymal cells in the choroid plexus of the ventricles of the ...

or for the delivery of drugs (e.g.

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemother ...

) into the

. It consists of a

in one

lateral ventricle The lateral ventricles are the two largest ventricles of the brain and contain cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Each cerebral hemisphere contains a lateral ventricle, known as the left or right ventricle, respectively. Each lateral ventricle resemble ...

attached to a reservoir implanted under the scalp. It is used to treat brain tumors, leukemia/lymphoma or

leptomeningeal In anatomy, the meninges (, ''singular:'' meninx ( or ), ) are the three membranes that envelop the brain and spinal cord. In mammals, the meninges are the dura mater, the arachnoid mater, and the pia mater. Cerebrospinal fluid is located in th ...

disease by intrathecal drug administration. In the

palliative care Palliative care (derived from the Latin root , or 'to cloak') is an interdisciplinary medical caregiving approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating suffering among people with serious, complex, and often terminal illnesses. Wit ...

of terminal cancer, an Ommaya reservoir can be inserted for

intracerebroventricular injection Intracerebroventricular injection (also called ICV injection, i.c.v. injection, or sometimes ICVI) is an invasive injection technique of substances directly into the cerebrospinal fluid in cerebral ventricles in order to bypass the bloodbrain barr ...

(ICV) of morphine. It was originally invented in 1963 by

Ayub K. Ommaya Ayub Khan Ommaya MD, ScD (hc), Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons, FRCS, Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, FACS (1930 - 2008) was a Pakistani American neurosurgeon and the inventor of the Ommaya reservoir. The reservoir is used ...

, a South-Asian-American

neurosurgeon Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peri ...

. In January 2017, researchers at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre used an Ommaya reservoir to measure the

intracranial pressure Intracranial pressure (ICP) is the pressure exerted by fluids such as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) inside the skull and on the brain tissue. ICP is measured in millimeters of mercury ( mmHg) and at rest, is normally 7–15 mmHg for a supine adul ...

that is regularly observed in astronauts in

zero-gravity Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight. It is also termed zero gravity, zero G-force, or zero-G. Weight is a measurement of the force on an object at rest in a relatively strong gravitational fie ...

conditions. Ommaya reservoir tool-1.png Ommaya reservoir tool-2.png

References

Science and technology in Pakistan Medical equipment Drug delivery devices Pakistani inventions History of science and technology in Pakistan Neurosurgical procedures {{Medical-equipment-stub