A facility in Illinois has successfully completed an intraoperative MRI (iMRI) surgical procedure -- only the second in the state.
A team of nearly 20 physicians and support staff at the Illinois Neurological Institute Brain Tumor Center at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria successfully completed a frontotemporal supratentorial craniotomy for tumor resection on a 27-year-old man with cancer recurrence.
The iMRI is a unique setup that melds the operating room environment with the imaging technology of an MRI scanner. It allows neurosurgeons to scan patients during surgery and see a detailed image of their progress in real-time, according to the facility.
The high-resolution scans allow neurosurgeons to distinguish between tumor tissue and normal tissue, minimize the disturbance of healthy tissue, and adjust surgical plans, which often means fewer repeat surgeries.
The iMRI will be phased into the surgical rotation, and it will be used on patients selected on a case-by-case basis, the center said.
