INTRAOPERATIVE MR: MAKING AN IMPACT
Over the last two decades, clinicians, scientists and engineers have been developing intraoperative imaging systems to improve surgical treatment. Today, leading neurosurgical hospitals indicate that in over 40% of all cases, the surgeon chose to modify their approach based on new information from intraoperative MR imaging that would otherwise not have been available until after completing the procedure.
Furthermore, in over 55% of glioma cases, additional brain tumor was identified and resected after iMRI. These centers report significant improvements – about 30 percentage points – in the portion of cases achieving gross/total tumor resection with intraoperative MR compared to cases without it. Considering that “improved outcome among adult patients with hemispheric LGG [glioma] is predicted by greater EOR [extent of resection]”9, iMRI is making a significant difference in neurosurgery.
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2. Chen et al, Springer-Verlag 2011
3. Database at Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, MO (Not published, 444 patients)
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5. Wirtz et al, Neurosurgery, 2000
6. Lenaburg et al, Technol Cancer Res Treat 2009
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8. Hatiboglu et al, Neurosurgery 2009
9. Smith, Berger et al, Clinical Oncology 2007