IMRIS has announced that neurosurgeons at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University in Zhengzhou City, China, have successfully performed the first case involving an adult male brain tumour patient using the recently installed VISIUS Surgical Theatre.
According to a company release the system allows for multiple MR scanning during brain tumour operations without compromising patient safety, the VISIUS Surgical Theatre features a high-field MR scanner that travels on demand using ceiling-mounted rails into a state-of-the-art neurosurgical operating room. As in this initial case, serial scanning gives the surgeon the ability to assess and perform further resection to remove as much tumour as possible.
With integrated technologies and control systems for imaging, patient-handling and information management, the VISIUS Surgical Theatre provides intraoperative vision to surgeons to assist in their surgical decision-making and enhance treatment precision. When not needed for intraoperative imaging, the scanner remains in a diagnostic room where it can be used for inpatient and outpatient imaging.
Zhengzhou University Hospital is the third IMRIS system installed in China. Other locations are: PLA General Hospital in Beijing and Huashan Hospital at Fudan University in Shanghai. Two other VISIUS Surgical Theatres are currently being installed at Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing and First Affiliated Hospital of Jilin University in Changchun.
The day before the first procedure, Xianzhi Liu, chief neurosurgeon, reviewed the surgical suite with province health department representatives. “Since we are the biggest and leading hospital in Henan province,” he said, “we have a responsibility to our patients to utilise cutting edge technology that brings the most precise surgical capabilities.”
When the hospital announced purchase of the VISIUS Surgical Theatre in March 2012, Kan Quancheng, hospital president, said the suite “is the essential, leading-edge technology that will take us to the next level of research and clinical practice, especially in neurosurgery.”
