Idaho Falls girl first patient to benefit from new brain MRI machine
February 9, 2022
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22:36Now PlayingIdaho Falls girl first patient to benefit from new brain MRI machine
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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Thanks to innovative care at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, there is new hope for children 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.
“Using this system, I come into every surgery more confident that we’re going to get all of the tumor out the first time and not need follow-up procedures,” said Samuel Cheshier, MD, neurosurgeon at University of Utah Health and Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital. “These brain scans give us real-time data to ensure there aren’t parts of the tumor tissue lingering.”
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.
With the new system at Primary Children’s Hospital, Dr. Cheshier says he uses iMRI for nearly every surgery to remove brain tumors. It helps him remove tumors with greater precision and leave more healthy brain tissue untouched, which is critical to a growing child and their future development.
iMRI-assisted neurosurgery was beneficial for 11-year-old Olivia Jones, who was Dr. Cheshier’s first patient to benefit from the new system.
In October 2021, Olivia was airlifted from a hospital in Idaho Falls to Primary Children’s after doctors discovered a tumor on the back of her brainstem, which was causing serious issues.
“It’s so frightening as a parent when you hear a diagnosis like that, but you’re thankful that this technology is being used to help your child,” said Heidi Jones, Olivia’s mother.
Primary Children’s physicians are still monitoring Olivia closely. So far, scans have shown no signs of the tumor after surgery.
Dr. Robert Bollo, a neurosurgeon at University of Utah Health and Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, uses the real-time brain scans to safely treat overactive neurons in patients with seizures.
Dr. Bollo and his team use a robot to insert a laser deep into the brain where the neurons trigger seizure episodes. Once in place, the patient is moved to the iMRI machine, where the surgeon can see in real-time the active parts of the brain where the laser is working.
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