Ascension’s Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas, has finished a $22 million project to upgrade its surgical suite.
The intraoperative MRI surgical suite allows neurosurgeons to perform complex procedures — such as tumor removals and ablations for epilepsy — without needing to move the patient from the operating room, according to an Oct. 23 news release from St. Louis-based Ascension.
Some of these surgeries take days because MRI scans are required after a procedure to confirm the operation was successful. For instance, parts of a tumor might remain after the first procedure. At Dell Children’s, however, surgeries that historically lasted days can be shortened to one day, as the new MRI system captures scans during the procedure, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
“Not many children’s hospitals in the country have this,” Elias Rizk, MD, PhD, co-chief of neurosciences at Dell Children’s, told the American-Statesman. “This is next-level acute patient care.”
