State-of-the-Art MRI Neurosurgical Room

brain surgery utilizing a new microsurgical system in an advanced neurosurgical room using real-time imaging and data processing to treat complicated brain tumors.

Neurosurgeons on the medical staff at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas (PHD; TX, USA) recently performed the first U.S. surgical procedure using BrainSuite iMRI neurosurgical suite technology in the hospital's new intra-operative magnetic resonance imaging (iMRI) neurosurgical suite. The operating room, designed to provide precision and real-time imaging during brain surgery, is among the first of its kind in the world. The suite was developed by BrainLab, Inc. (Munich, Germany).

This breakthrough use of sophisticated computerized equipment gives neurosurgeons access to vital clinical information about a patient's brain condition during surgery. The increased level of data--converging in real time--can assist in improving the precision and accuracy of procedures, which may reduce the need for repeat surgeries.

J. Michael Desaloms, M.D., a neurosurgeon on the hospital's medical staff, operated on a 31-year-old mother of three in the hospital's new iMRI neurosurgical suite. The patient was treated for a cavernous angioma, a rare disorder of the capillaries and small veins of the brain. The disorder may cause a lesion to form from a group of tightly packed blood vessels that can displace normal brain tissue. These lesions can become filled with blood and form a mass resembling a tumor.

PHD's new specialized surgical suite features BrainSuite technology and Siemens' Medical Solutions (Erlangen, Germany) Magnetom 1.5 Tesla high-field MRI system. The operating suite's technology provides neurosurgeons with real time, decision-making information to treat complicated brain tumor and other neurosurgical problems.

Within the surgery suite, neurosurgeons on the medical staff combine image-guided surgery, iMRI, and all relevant data management and visualization technology. The high-field iMRI provides neurosurgeons with immediate access to new images of the brain before, during, and at the conclusion of the surgical procedure.

The navigation system links the real time, intra-operative images with the spatial position of the surgical instruments helping to provide the neurosurgeon with a higher level of accuracy regarding tumor location and amount of diseased tissue removed. In one study using iMRI, 36% of surgical procedures initially considered complete were continued to remove residual tumor tissue.



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