• E Alexander.
• Department of Surgery, Division of Neurosurgery, University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.
• Neuroimaging Clin. N. Am. 2001 Nov 1;11(4):659-72.

AbstractThe development of the intraoperative MR imager represents an important example of creative vision and interdisciplinary teamwork. The result is a remarkable tool for neurosurgical applications. MRT allows surgical manipulation under direct visualization of the intracranial contents through the eye of the surgeon and through the volumetric images of the MR imaging system. This technology can be applied to cranial and spinal cases, and forseeably can encompass application to the entire gamut of neurosurgical efforts. The author's experience has been that this device is easy and comfortable for the surgeon to use. Image acquisition, giving views in the plane of choice, lasts no more than 2 to 60 seconds (depending on the imaging method), and does not increase the duration of a given procedure substantially. The author believes that the information received through intraoperative MR imaging scanning ultimately will contribute to decreasing the duration of surgery. Future possibilities include combining the intraoperative MR imager with other technologies, such as the endoscope, focused ultrasound, robotics, and the evaluation of brain function intraoperatively. The development of the intraoperative MR imager marks a significant advance in neurosurgery, an advance that will revolutionize intraoperative visualization as fully as the operating microscope. The combination of intraoperative visualization and precise surgical navigation is unparalleled, and its enhancement of surgical applications will be widespread. Considering the remarkable potential of the intraoperative MR imager for neurosurgical applications, optimal magnet design, image quality, and navigational methods are necessary to capitalize on the advantages of this revolutionary tool. The intraoperative MR imaging system that the author's team has developed and used has combined these features, and allows the performance of open surgical procedures without the need of patient or magnet repositioning. By using advanced navigational tools and computer technology, it represents an integration of frameless stereotactic methods with real-time interactive imaging. The midfield imager provides sufficient spatial and temporal resolution and image quality to assess anatomy and pathology adequately, to monitor a surgical procedure, and make image-based decisions. The intraoperative use of this unique system is not limited to biopsies or limited-access procedures. The entire range of neurosurgical procedures can be performed, if the requisite instrumentation is available. Much work remains to be done, however. The team did not develop this system only to enable the performance of current neurosurgical procedures. Forty years ago, the operating microscope enabled not only the performance of undreamt-of procedures but opened the door to entire new subspecialties. The entire landscape of neurosurgery will change at a fundamental level as the full ramifications of this exciting idea come to fruition. The holy grail of image-guided surgery is a seamless interface between the eye and hand in the purest sense (i.e., the mind's eye and hand). Ideally, this seamless interface represents effortless flow between the procedural goal compared with the present situation and the manipulation of the tools available to accomplish the task, whether they be the scalpel, drill, laser, ultrasonic aspirator, phased array focused ultrasound, microrobot, or high-dose irradiator. As in the realm of high-performance military jet fighters, the physical limits of the human being demarcate the confining boundary of the system. Those limits are much tighter around the domain of tool manipulation, where the surgeon will yield, early on, to the enhanced performance of robotics and other technical adjuncts. The era of large open magnet imaging systems for surgical procedures then will come to a close; however, the grander era of the surgeon's integration of precision-guided, multimodality therapeutics will just be beginning. The future will be very bright, indeed.

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