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| The Visius Surgical Theatre for intraoperative imaging was installed at Dartmouth-Hitchcock and Brigham and Women's hospitals.--Courtesy of Imris |
The real-time use of MRIs and CT scans during surgery is becoming increasingly prevalent and improving patient outcomes.
The images produced by intraoperative imaging techniques allow surgeons to make more precise cuts, thereby sparing healthy tissue and bone, and reducing the need for repeat procedures. The revision rate for breast cancer tumor removal surgery, or lumpectomy, is 40%, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston is researching ways to use real-time imaging to reduce that rate. In addition, the Dartmouth-Hitchcock health system in Lebanon, NH, received a $20 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to deploy intraoperative imaging, the article says.
"We still need a surgeon's training and judgment," said Dr. Sohail Mirza, chairman of the health system's orthopedics department, told The Wall Street Journal, "but we can use three-dimensional deep imaging to get past the limitations of human error and hand-eye coordination."
For example, last year he used the technique on a 12-year-old spinal surgery patient, and was able to remove a tumor while preserving enough bone to avoid the need for spinal reconstruction surgery. "They explained to us that they were able to take the pictures with the MRI while they were operating to make sure they got everything, without having to damage nerves or disturb the tumor," the patient's dad, Michael Deliso, said.
This trend in medicine is changing the device world as well. Companies that make intraoperative imaging technology are in high demand. Last year Siemens signed an agreement with Tennessee's MRI Interventions to jointly develop software enabling catheter-based procedures to be performed using real-time MRI imaging as opposed to fluoroscopy.
Intraoperative imaging adds urgency to the race to develop MRI-safe pacemakers, because implants that are not MRI compatible can turn into deadly projectiles if exposed to the imaging technique's magnetic force during surgery or in more traditional settings. Biotronik just announced a study in Heart Rhythm that it says confirms the compatibility of its ProMRI pacemakers.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the intraoperative imaging systems at Dartmouth-Hitchcock and Brigham and Women's Hospitals were made by Canada's Imris ($IMRS). The Visius Surgical Theatre is available in 87 operating rooms across the world. It consists of a two- or three-room surgical suite. The MRI systems cost $3 million to $7 million, while CT scanners cost $1.5 to $3.5 million.
- read the Wall Street Journal article