Baylor Dallas Opens Nation's First Neurosurgical OR Suite Featuring BrainSUITE IMRI, GE Healthcare MR Surgical Technology

Main Category: Neurology / Neuroscience
Also Included In: MRI / PET / Ultrasound
Article Date: 06 Jun 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas is the first hospital in the country to collaborate with GE Healthcare and BrainLAB to open technically advanced neurosurgery operating room (OR) suites that will allow neurosurgeons to use real-time, intra-operative images of the brain during surgery. The $16.5 million operating suites will be the first to combine the BrainSUITE(R) iMRI and GE Healthcare MR Surgical Suite.

The four operating room suites opened this week and are equipped to use a high-definition magnetic resonance scanner and BrainSUITE iMRI navigation system that will help physicians more accurately view a tumor's location and remove diseased tissue.

"We're bringing together three leading health care companies to implement an innovative suite that will enhance the neurosurgeon's ability to provide quality neurosurgical care," said Christopher Michael, M.D., medical director for neurosurgical operating rooms, and neurosurgeon on the medical staff at Baylor Dallas.

The new technically advanced OR suite at Baylor Dallas will consist of two adjacent rooms specifically dedicated to neurological care. One room will be a neurosurgery operating theater while the other will be a neuroradiology room with a high-definition 1.5T magnetic resonance (MR) scanner. An advanced transport system between the two rooms allows patients to be moved from the OR to the MR scanner and back during surgery.

Three additional neurosurgical suites were also opened. The BrainSUITE iMRI navigation system links the operating room with real-time, intra-operative images of the brain from the MR scanner with the spatial position of the surgical instruments. This provides the physician a more accurate representation of the tumor's location and helps the physician verify the complete removal of a brain tumor during the actual surgery.

"The real-time images we will be able to use in the new OR suite will help us make great strides in improving outcomes for our neurosurgical patients," said Dr. Michael.

About Baylor Dallas

Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, a 1025-bed not-for-profit academic hospital, is a major patient care and research center in the southwest. The nationally acclaimed medical center serves as flagship hospital for Baylor Health Care System and has earned Magnet status for "Excellence in Nursing Services" from the American Nurses Credentialing Center -- the organization's highest level of recognition. In addition to its Level 1 trauma center, Baylor Dallas is also home to many nationally ranked centers of excellence including transplant, cardiovascular services, orthopaedics, oncology, digestive diseases, neurosciences and gynecology.

Physicians are members of the medical staff at one of Baylor Health Care System's subsidiary, community or affiliated medical centers and are neither employees nor agents of those medical centers, Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas or Baylor Health Care System.

Source: Baylor Health Care System