From the October 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


Philips and Brainlab have joined forces to produce their own intraoperative suite, called Ingenia MR-OR. Ingenia MR-OR utilizes a streamlined track system which allows the patient to be moved smoothly between the MR and the OR via front docking and rear-docking table capabilities.

Boop says one drawback to iMRI is that it adds time to the length of the surgery, which means the patient is under anesthesia about an hour longer. Although Boop says the majority of brain tumor cases do not need to return for secondary surgeries due to missing part of the lesion, the benefits of saving the small percentage who would need secondary surgeries makes the extra time worthwhile.


“In some ways, iMRI is more important for pediatric patients than adults,” says Miller. “With kids there are certain tumors that, if 100 percent removed, there is almost zero chance the patient will die from that tumor.” Miller says this is particularly true with regards to brain tumors.
Dr. John Honeycutt, pediatric neurosurgeon at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, has been performing iMRI on children since 2007, logging more than 600 pediatric cases. Honeycutt says that in 200 of those cases they were able to avoid secondary operations which may not have been prevented without intraoperative MR.

“There isn’t a pediatric neurosurgeon who wants to do the same procedure on the same kid,” says Miller. “They want to do it once, they want to do it right, and they never want to see that kid in the operating room ever again.” Prioritizing pediatric and neonatal patients in MR has been a trend in recent years and has yielded some exciting innovations.

Silence is golden: pediatrics and the age of quiet scanning
MR provides invaluable insight into the health and organ function of pediatric cases. Whether diagnosing a problem or monitoring the success of a treatment, being able to safely explore the soft tissue matter of newborns and young ones can yield lifesaving information. Manufacturers take a two-pronged approach to these cases; keep the delicate patient comfortable and optimize the results of the procedure.

The advent of silent scanners is making a big mark on the discomfort associated with traditional MR. For 15 years Toshiba’s Pianissimo technology has brought significant noise reduction to its entire portfolio of MR imaging modalities. It works by enclosing the gradient inside a vacuum that effectively mutes the scanner’s activity.

Suresh Narayan, senior manager of Toshiba’s MR business unit says, “It is most helpful with pediatric patients because it’s so quiet that the mother or parent can be inside the scan room holding the patient’s hand and having a conversation while the scanner is scanning. It’s that quiet.”

October 2014 Magazine

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