MRI scans during surgery helped surgeons remove more brain tumor in children
Original title: Intraoperative MRI in pediatric brain tumor surgery: Optimizing surgical decision-making and extent of resection.
How far along is this research?
- Lab cells
- Animals
- Review
- Tested in people
This was tested in people. That is the most reliable kind of research we share.
Some hospitals already use this, but not every hospital has it.
The short version
Taking an MRI scan in the middle of surgery helped doctors find tumor they had missed.
What was studied. One hospital in Zurich looked back at 118 brain tumor surgeries in 108 children. During each surgery, doctors took an MRI scan to check how much tumor was left.
What they found. In 48 surgeries, the scan led doctors to take a closer look. In 45 of those, they removed more tumor. By the end, surgeons reached their planned goal in 117 of 118 surgeries. Wound infections happened in 4 surgeries, and the scans did not seem to raise that risk.
What this means, and what it doesn't
What it could mean: For a child having brain tumor surgery, a scan during the operation may help the surgeon remove more of the tumor. It may also lower the chance of needing a second surgery. You can ask your child's care team if their hospital uses this.
What it doesn't mean: This does not mean the scan is a cure. It is one study from one hospital, and it looked back at past surgeries. It did not compare children who had the scan with children who did not. Not every hospital has this kind of scanner in the operating room.
Source: PubMed, September 17, 2026 · Read the original
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