Technology gives surgeons instant feedback

Community support buys Providence St. Vincent one of the rarest pieces of magnetic imaging equipment in the world

By Christina Lent

The Beaverton Valley Times, Oct 8, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (3 Reader comments)

Jonathan House / The Times

Neurosurgeon Oisin O’Neill steadies a sedated Kenny Hopfer as Providence St. Vincent Medical Center’s new intra-operative MRI moves into the operating suite. Below, O’Neill and Dr. Pankaj Gore begin the process of removing Hopfer’s brain tumor.

Kenny Hopfer is the first of potentially hundreds of thousands of patients to benefit from Providence St. Vincent Medical Center’s new intra-operative MRI.

The 40-year-old Multnomah Village resident underwent the first brain surgery using the iMRI in the West Coast on Monday to remove a stage-2 oligodendroglioma tumor.

“The surgery went great – no problems, no hitches,” said Dr. Oisin O’Neill, the neurosurgeon who performed the surgery. “The gross total resection of the tumor went perfectly.”

Images from the iMRI taken directly after the surgery, before closing Hopfer’s head, confirm that finding.

“Everybody was delighted with the machine,” O’Neill said of the new tool’s performance in its first run.

The iMRI has the world’s most advanced imaging technology, allowing neurosurgeons to be more precise when removing tumors while also reducing the need to have to perform a second brain surgery.

“This is a state-of-the-art, very high-quality imaging system that will improve patient care and really change the outcomes of hundreds of thousands of patients over its lifetime of operation,” O’Neill said. “This machine will be very important in treating certain patient populations, and it’s great to have one in Portland.”

There are only 11 iMRIs in operation in the United States and 15 total being used around the world.

‘All about accuracy’

The new tool is housed in a multi-million-dollar suite adjoining a specially designed and equipped operating room at the Southwest Barnes Road hospital. The 7.5-ton magnetic imaging device is suspended from tracks on the ceiling. A technician in an adjacent control room can glide the magnet into the operating room to scan a patient’s brain before and after surgery – without moving the patient – and glide the magnet back out again.

“The technology in the room is like something out of Star Trek,” O’Neill said.

First patient MRI brain surgery from K L Harden on Vimeo.

By having the ability to bring the MRI to the patient, neurosurgeons at St. Vincent will be able to immediately check their work by comparing the before and after brain scans.

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