Intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging to reduce the rate of early reoperation for lesion resection in pediatric neurosurgery

Object This study describes the pediatric experience with a dual-multifunction-room IMRIS 1.5-T intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (iMRI) suite and analyzes its impact on clinical variables associated with neurosurgical resection of intracranial lesions, including safety and efficacy. Methods Since the inception of the iMRI–guided resection program in April 2008 at both Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's Hospital, a prospective database recorded the clinical variables associated with demographics and outcome with institutional review board approval. A similarly approved retrospective database was constructed from February 2006 to March 2010 for non–iMRI resections. These databases were retrospectively reviewed for clinical variables associated with resection of pediatric (age 20 months–21 years) intracranial lesions including brain tumors and focal cortical dysplasia. Patient demographics, operative time, estimated blood loss, additional resection, length of stay, pathology, and complications were analyzed. Results The authors found that 42 iMRI–guided resections were performed, whereas 103 conventional resections had been performed without the iMRI. The mean patient age was 10.5 years (range 20 months–20 years) in the iMRI group and 9.8 years (range 2–21 years) in the conventional group (p = 0.41). The mean duration of surgery was 350 minutes in the iMRI group and 243 minutes in the conventional group (p < 0.0001). The mean hospital stay was 8.2 days in the iMRI group, and 6.6 days in the conventional group, and this trended toward significance (p = 0.05). In the first 2 weeks postoperatively, there were 8 reoperations (7.77%) in the conventional group compared with none in the iMRI group, which was not significant in a 2-tailed test (p = 0.11) but trended toward significance in a 1-tailed test (p = 0.06). The significant complications included reoperation for hydrocephalus or infection: 6.8% (conventional) versus 4.8% (iMRI). Conclusions Intraoperative MR imaging–guided resections resulted in a trend toward reduction in the need for repeat surgery in the immediate 2-week postoperative period compared with conventional pediatric neurosurgical resections for tumor or focal cortical dysplasia. Although there is an increased operative time, the iMRI suite offers a comparable safety and efficacy profile while potentially reducing the per-case cost by diminishing the need for early reoperation.