Your Impact: Neuro Drills Take the Definition of “Precision” to the Next Level
Published Monday, August 17, 2026
Thanks to donor support, Dr. Travis Marion and the neurosurgery team now have access to six new neuro drills for patient care at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.
When a spinal surgeon like Dr. Travis Marion is drilling bone within a millimetre of nerves and fluid, precision is everything. Highly specialized neuro drills at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre allow surgeons total control to within micrometres.
“I know going into a really complex case that I have the precision tool I need to perform that operation safely,” Dr. Marion said.
However, the Hospital's previous neuro drills were aging and discontinued, which means they could no longer be maintained or repaired.
Thanks to your support of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation through your donations, your participation at Foundation events, and your purchase of Thunder Bay 50/50 tickets, surgeons at our Hospital now have a new set of neuro drills.
The term “neuro drill” may seem like a misnomer to the average person. Yes, they are used in neurosurgery. Spinal surgeons like Dr. Marion can also use them with special attachments to remove and shape bone. In this sense, you could almost think of them as a high-tech Dremel rather than a drill.
For example, bone growth in the spinal canal (sometimes called bone spurs) increases pressure and causes pain. A procedure called a laminectomy using a neuro drill can remove the bone growth, reduce the pressure, and relieve the pain.
As you can imagine, that's a very delicate surgery.
“As we slowly de-burr the bone, we're literally less than a millimetre from important neurological structures,” Dr. Marion said. “If you're using an instrument that's running at 60,000 or 75,000 RPM, you want to be careful where you're operating. This drill gives me total control.”
The drills need to be sterilized after each use, so it's important to have several on hand for scheduled and emergency surgeries. With your support, the Foundation was able to purchase six new drills for the neurosurgery program.
Spinal surgery programs in Kenora and Dryden use the same kind of drills. That makes it easier for surgeons like Dr. Marion because they're using the same tool, every time. He said that having a standard set of drills across the region also helps streamline education including with the nursing staff.
“Having the same drills allows us to provide spine surgery at those hospitals and with the same standard of care as we can here in Thunder Bay,” Dr. Marion said.
In 2025, there were approximately 360 spinal surgeries performed in Thunder Bay with another 34 in Kenora and 12 in Dryden.
“Top-of-the-line neuro drills like these continue to move the needle in terms of spinal surgery in Northwestern Ontario. It allows us to provide care close to home and increase the complexity of surgeries we can provide here.”
You helped make it happen! Your continued support of the Health Sciences Foundation will fund projects like these that improve patient care, closer to home. Read more about the amazing ways you help patients every day: healthsciencesfoundation.ca/news
Article by Graham Strong