New Tool Allows for Real-time Observation During Brain Surgery

For 20 years, neurosurgeons have discussed a radical way to achieve real-time accuracy in instrument placement: performing surgery with the brain inside an MRI machine. “When you open the brain for surgery, the tissue can shift slightly, and that will throw off predictions made in advance,” said a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. To bring the full promise of MRI technology into the operating room, a new company has developed software that will allow neurosurgeons to observe the brain in real time using MRI technology during surgery. For example, because drugs for brain cancer can be delivered over the course of 54 hours, it would be valuable to see where the drug is going during the first few hours of delivery. Because drugs move at different rates through gray and white matter, having the ability to recalibrate the treatment plan based on actual data of where the drug is moving, would allow surgeons to alter the location of the catheter or the flow rate of the medication. To read more about this study, click here.