Wilkes-Barre General Hospital Neurosurgeons Complete 10th MRI-guided Surgical Procedure Using Revolutionary IMRIS iSPACE™ Imaging System
Milestone achieved as neurosurgeons at Pennsylvania’s Wilkes-Barre General Hospital complete their 10th MRI-guided surgical using the IMRIS iSPACE Surgical Imaging system.
Winnipeg, Manitoba (PRWEB) October 9, 2006
Neurosurgeons at Pennsylvania’s Wilkes-Barre General Hospital completed their 10th MRI-guided surgical procedure recently, only four months after the commissioning of the IMRIS iSPACE Surgical Imaging system. The IMRIS system includes a unique, ceiling-mounted movable Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine (MRI) that lets surgeons take high-resolution scans of patients when and where they are needed most during surgery, providing them with improved real-time information, allowing them to analyze and operate with greater precision.
The IMRIS iSPACE uses a number of advanced surgical imaging innovations and has multiple surgical applications in cranial, spinal and general surgery. The MRI’s mobility is more than just a technological breakthrough: when it’s not being used in the operating room, it can be used as a diagnostic MRI for the hospital’s other patients. This increases the hospital’s clinical diagnostic capacity and makes the MRI more cost-effective, a benefit to patients and the hospital alike.
In the operating room, the major strength of the IMRIS iSPACE advanced MRI imaging technology is that surgeons can obtain high-quality images right in the OR during surgery, all without ever moving the patient. Moving the MRI instead of the patient not only enhances patient safety; it enables surgeons to take a scan, start surgery, then take further scans to evaluate and respond as the surgery progresses.
This real-time feedback may make the difference between one or several surgeries to remove a patient’s brain tumor. In the past, surgeons might complete a procedure and have to wait for a few days before the patient could be scanned again, only to discover that some of the tumor still remained and re-operation was required.
The IMRIS iSPACE may make that scenario less likely. Using feedback from high field MRI scans performed in the OR during surgery, surgeons can adjust the surgical procedure to increase the chances for total removal of a tumor. That’s just what happened in the case of one 49-year-old woman who arrived at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital with a brain tumor requiring surgery. After several hours of surgery, images acquired from the IMRIS movable MRI scan in the OR showed that some of the patient’s tumor still remained. As a result, surgeons could remove the tumor entirely, preventing the need for a further operation and improving this patient’s chance for recovery.
“Wyoming Valley Health Care System is committed to providing the very best health care to its community,” said William R. Host, MD, President and CEO of Wyoming Valley Health Care System. “Today, we’ve fulfilled another aspect of that commitment in a very big way, by bringing some of the world’s most advanced surgical imaging technology in the IMRIS iSPACE here, to Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.”
“One of the most challenging and risky aspects of brain surgery is the precision with which neurosurgeons must operate,” explained Carlo de Luna, MD, Chief of Neurosurgery. “We use an MRI to help map the area of the brain where the surgery is being performed. To have access to an MRI during the actual surgical procedure as we do with the IMRIS system is much safer and far superior to the prospect of moving the patient out of the OR for a test, then returning that patient back to the OR for more surgery. In the case of our 49-year-old patient, the outcome was much better because we were able to adjust during the surgery to ensure we extracted all of the tumor. Her prognosis has been significantly improved and the superior imaging capabilities of the IMRIS system helped in this outcome.”
In addition, IMRIS technology is also being used for other neurosurgeries procedures at Wyoming Valley Health Care System. Intra-operative MRI studies are being performed on herniated disk surgery for the neck. The same advantages are being seen in these more common procedures as in the brain. Using the surgical imaging system from IMRIS, the spinal cord can be visualized to ensure as complete a removal of the disk can be done with similar safety and precision.
“At IMRIS, our goal is to create surgical imaging technology that provides surgeons with better feedback on their patients where and when they need it – in the operating room,” said IMRIS President and CEO, David Graves. “Wilkes-Barre General Hospital has been able to show just what can be accomplished with the IMRIS iSPACE imaging suite to contribute to a higher level of patient care.”
The 412-bed Wilkes-Barre General Hospital is the largest community hospital in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Home of The Center for Advanced Surgery, it is this region’s leader in offering the most sophisticated and advanced surgical procedures. Its surgeons perform over 12,000 procedures annually across a wide-range of surgical specialties. For more information visit www. wvhcs. org (http://www. wvhcs. org).
IMRIS Inc. designs and manufactures advanced surgical imaging systems for use in cranial, spinal and general surgery applications. IMRIS is focused exclusively on providing fully integrated surgical imaging solutions that support the effectiveness of the surgical team. For more information about the IMRIS iSPACE™ solution visit www. imris. com (http://www. imris. com).
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