February 10, 2022 – Because of the innovative care at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, there is new hope for children in Utah and throughout the Intermountain West who suffer from seizures or have brain tumors. Neurosurgeons at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital are now able to use a highly-specialized intraoperative MRI to clearly see deep inside the brain during surgeries to help kids with severe seizures and protect kids’ healthy brain tissue when removing tumors.
Primary Children’s is the only pediatric hospital in the Intermountain West using an intraoperative MRI (iMRI), which allows neurosurgeons to scan a patient’s brain and make needed adjustments in the middle of surgery. This iMRI system is the first in the nation to use a special coil to dramatically enhance images. The system is smaller and specifically designed for children and their developing brains. iMRI-assisted surgeries also can be less invasive for children, helping reduce risks.
In the past, pediatric neurosurgeons could use an iMRI at an adult hospital to perform these surgeries, but systems there didn’t always fit a child’s needs, and physicians had to be selective on which patients would be able to get the iMRI-aided procedure.