Keywords cranial tumor - extent of resection - glioma - gross total resection - intraoperative
MRI
Introduction
Since the first report in 1999 of intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (iMRI)
at Brigham and Women's hospital,[1 ] it has been increasingly recognized as an important tool for cranial tumor surgery.[2 ]
[3 ]
[4 ]
[5 ]
[6 ]
[7 ] iMRI allows the neuro-navigation system to be re-registered with intraoperative
imaging data, mitigating inaccuracy issues due to brain shift. It also provides objective
verification of the extent of resection (EOR) of intracranial pathology. Thus, iMRI
allows surgeons to make additional resection, maximizing the EOR, and avoiding unnecessary
re-operation.[8 ]
[9 ]
[10 ]
[11 ]
There is currently scant data on how iMRI actually assists the surgeon in real-time
practice when making critical decisions and reformulating surgical plans. We studied
how iMRI data impact a surgeon's intraoperative decision-making process as well as
clinical outcomes.
Materials and Methods
Patient
This was a retrospective study reviewing database records from the 3 Tesla intraoperative
MRI (iMRI) of patients who underwent cranial tumor resection between June 2019 and
September 2021. Indications for iMRI guidance were tumors in which intraoperative
EOR was difficult to determine with certainty.
Set Up of Operating Room and iMRI
Surgery took place in a dual independent operating room connected to a stationary
3T-iMRI (Ingenia; Philips Medical Systems, Best, The Netherlands) room design. The
operating table was mounted with an MRI-compatible rigid head fixator with integrated
MRI coil (Noras, Hoechberg, Germany). The operating rooms were equipped with an integrated
ceiling mounted neuro-navigation system (Brainlab, Munich, Germany).
Workflow
All patients were anesthetized in a standard fashion. Patient heads were fixed in
an MRI-compatible rigid head fixator with integrated MRI coils. Registration of the
navigation system was performed by surface matching prior to the operation. Standard
surgical equipment was used throughout the procedure. For pituitary tumor and clival
chordoma, patients were operated by rigid endoscopic surgery (Storz, Tuttlingen, Germany).
After the surgeon finished the resection and decided to perform an intraoperative
scan, non-MRI compatible equipment was removed from the patient and the surgical field
was covered with a sterile sheath with head coils attached to the head fixator. Anesthetic
equipment was changed to an MRI compatible type. A “time out” procedure was performed
to ensure all MRI safety protocols had been followed. The patient was then moved to
an MRI-compatible trolly that transported the patient into the MRI scanner. After
iMRI scanning was completed, the patient was returned to the operating table and re-draped.
The neuro-navigation system was re-registered with the iMRI dataset. The surgeon then
examined the iMRI results without a neuroradiologist involved. If additional resection
was not required, the surgical field was closed in a standard fashion. If additional
resection was deemed necessary, the operation was resumed until additional resection
was completed after which the surgeon may opt for another iMRI scanning.
MRI Acquisition and Volumetric Analysis
Tumor volume was measured using semiautomated commercial software (iPlan element,
Brainlab, Munich, Germany) by a neurosurgeon in a blinded fashion ([Fig. 1 ]). MRI parameters included (1) post contrast coronal and sagittal T1-weighted with
fat suppression for pituitary tumor, (2) postcontrast axial T1-weighted turbo field
echo for enhancing glioma and other enhancing tumors, (3) axial fluid-attenuated inversion
recovery (FLAIR) for non-enhancing glioma, and (4) axial T2-weighted for chordoma.
Fig. 1 Tumor volume was measured using semiautomated segmentation software on thin slice
MRI.
There is different timing of postoperative MRI (pMRI) for brain tumors in the literature.
It is generally common to obtain pMRI within 72 hours[7 ]
[12 ] or even within 24 hours[13 ]
[14 ] to avoid postoperative tissue reactions. However, there are also several publications
using late pMRI (3 months) for low-grade glioma[3 ]
[15 ] and pituitary tumors,[16 ]
[17 ] after which postoperative reactions have subsided. The latter practice, however,
may not be suitable for rapidly growing tumors. Therefore, in this study, we used
early pMRI obtained within 72 hours for enhancing glioma and late pMRI between 8 and
12 weeks for non-enhancing glioma and other benign tumors with the same parameters
as the preoperative MRI.
The pMRI was independently examined by a neuroradiologist to determine the presence
of residual tumor. Extent of resection was expressed as a percentage and calculated
by the following formula: preoperative tumor volume minus postoperative tumor volume
divided by preoperative tumor volume. Percentages were graded into three levels: (1)
gross total resection (GTR)—100% resection, (2) near-total resection (NTR) at 90%
or greater and less than 100% resection, and (3) subtotal resection (STR) less than
90% resection.
Data Collection
Data retrieved from medical records included patient characteristics, pathological
diagnosis, tumor location and volume, duration of iMRI scanning, additional resection
required, preoperative surgeon intention and intraoperative perception of EOR (graded
into GTR, NTR, or STR), would the surgeon continue or stop resection if iMRI is not
available? (yes/no), comparison between iMRI results and the surgeon's perception
(as expected or if unexpected-in what regards EOR or location of tumors), interruption
duration cause by the iMRI process (time when the operation was stopped to the time
when operation was resumed), and clinical outcomes (neurological complications, surgical
infection, hormone remission in secreting pituitary tumors). This retrospective study
involving human participants was approved by the Institutional Review Board (COA No.
1308/2021). Separate written informed consent was not required for this retrospective
study.
Statistical Analysis
Patient characteristics, demographic data, and tumor volume are presented in means
and standard deviation (SDs) for continuous variables and percentages and quartiles
for non-continuous variables. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were used
to analyze the correlation of the tumor volume. Cohen's kappa coefficient was used
to analyze the correlation of EOR. Statistical analysis was performed using the IBM
SPSS version 20 software (IBM Co., Armonk, NY, USA). A p -value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Result
Patient Characteristic and iMRI Scan
During the study period, 40 cases underwent cranial tumor surgery with iMRI guidance.
Seventeen (42.5%) were males and 22 (57.5%) were females with a mean age of 31.9 ± 16.3
years (range, 2–66 years). Tumor locations included supratentorial compartment, infratentorial
compartment, and in the sella turcica in 28 (70%), 4 (10%), and 8 (20%) cases, respectively.
The majority of pathologies were glioma and pituitary tumor as shown in [Table 1 ]. Ten (25%) patients had undergone a previous operation for cranial tumor removal.
Intraoperative neurophysiologic testing was used in 4 (10%) cases. All cases underwent
iMRI once. Average iMRI scanning duration was 36.7 ± 11.1 minutes (range, 22–70 minutes).
The operation interruption duration was 81.3 ± 24.3 minutes (range, 46–179 minutes).
There was one case with a hardware malfunction causing a delay that resulted in an
interruption of 179 minutes.
Table 1
Types of pathology
Pathology (n = 40)
Number of cases
Glioma (
n
= 29)
WHO Gr I
4
WHO Gr II
15
WHO Gr III
2
WHO Gr IV
8
Pituitary tumor (
n
= 8)
Non-secreting
3
-Knosp 0–2
2
-Knosp 3–4
1
Hormone secreting
5
-Knosp 0–2
5
-ACTH
5
Others (
n
= 3)
Chordoma
1
Medulloblastoma
2
Clinical Outcome
There were 10 (25%) cases with new neurological deficits including 6 (15%) temporary
and 4 (10%) permanent (lasted longer than 6 months). There were 4 (10%) cases with
postoperative infection including 2 (5%) with meningitis, 1 (2.5%) with urinary tract
infection, and 1 (2.5%) with pneumonia. There was no 30-day mortality. Hormone remission
was achieved in three cases of hormone-secreting pituitary tumor.
Surgeon Plan and Decision Making
Preoperative surgeon intention called for GTR in 28 (70%) cases. After resection,
GTR was 20 (50%) cases based on the surgeon's perception. iMRI result showed actual
GTR in 12 (30%) cases. There were five (12.5%) cases where surgeons would continue
resection if iMRI was not available. Results from the iMRI were unexpected to the
surgeon in 19 (47.5%) cases, consisting of unexpected locations of residual tumors
in 5 (12.5%) and unexpected EOR in 14 (35%) cases. A total of 24 cases (60%) received
additional resection after iMRI, 18 (45%) were with unexpected iMRI results, and 6
(15%) were with expected iMRI results. Full details are presented in [Table 2 ].
Table 2
Surgeon's perception, iMRI results, and addition resection (n = 40)
n (%)
Number of cases
Preoperative intention
GTR 28 (70)
GTR
28
NTR
9
STR
3
NTR 9 (22.5)
STR 3 (7.5)
Intraoperative surgeon's perception
GTR 20 (50)
GTR
20
NTR
8
NTR
7
STR
2
STR
3
NTR 15 (37.5)
STR 5 (12.5)
iMRI EOR
GTR 12 (30)
GTR
12
NTR
1
STR
7
NTR
3
STR
5
NTR
1
STR
6
STR
2
STR
3
NTR 5 (12.5)
STR 23 (57.5)
Expected/ Unexpected iMRI result
E 21 (52.5)
E
12
Ueor
1
Ueor
7
Uloc
3
Ueor
3
E
2
Uloc
1
Ueor
3
E
3
Uloc
1
E
1
E
3
Ueor 14 (35)
Uloc 5 (12.5)
Additional resection
24 (60)
0
1
6
3
3
1
1
3
2
1
1
2
Abbreviations: E, expected; Ueor, unexpected EOR; Uloc, unexpected locations of residual
tumors.
Tumor Volume and Extent of Resection
Among 40 cases, pMRI data were available for evaluating the postoperative EOR in 34
cases. Meaningful additional resection, defined as resection resulting in improved
EOR grade, was achieved in 12 (35.3%) cases. Details of tumor volume at each phase
of operation and extent of resection of these 34 cases are shown in [Table 3 ].
Table 3
Tumor volume, extent of resection, and additional resection (n = 34)
All (n = 34)
Glioma (n = 23)
Pituitary (n = 8)
Others (n = 3)
Preoperative volume (mL)
Median (range)
11.7 (0.1–113.0)
13.0 (1.3–113.0)
1.5 (0.1–18.6)
26.2 (13.1–46.2)
Intraoperative
Residual tumor vol. (mL),
median (range)
1.7 (0–54.9)
3.5 (0–54.9)
0 (0–5.5)
1.7 (0.9–3.9)
Extent of resection
%, Median (range)
85.8 (14.9–100)
69.1 (14.9–100)
100 (70.4–100)
91.6 (87.0–96.6)
GTR, n (%)
10 (29.4)
4 (17.4)
6 (75.0)
0 (0)
NTR, n (%)
5 (14.7)
3 (13.0)
0 (0)
2 (66.7)
STR, n (%)
19 (55.9)
16 (69.6)
2 (25.0)
1 (33.3)
Postoperative
Residual tumor vol. (mL),
median (range)
0 (0–30.4)
0 (0–30.4)
0.1 (0–4.1)
0 (0–1.6)
Extent of resection
%, Median (range)
100 (19.4–100)
100 (19.4–100)
94.7 (64.3–100)
100 (87.8–100)
GTR, n (%)
19 (55.9)
13 (56.5)
4 (50)
2 (66.7)
NTR, n (%)
2 (5.9)
2 (8.7)
0 (0)
0 (0)
STR, n (%)
13 (38.2)
8 (34.8)
4 (50)
1 (33.3)
Additional resection,
n
(%)
All
20 (58.8)
17 (73.9)
1 (12.5)
2 (66.7)
Meaningful
12 (35.3)
10 (43.5)
0 (0)
2 (66.7)
NTR→GTR
4 (11.8)
2 (8.7)
0 (0)
2 (66.7)
STR→GTR
7 (20.6)
7 (30.4)
0 (0)
0 (0)
STR→NTR
1 (2.9)
1 (4.3)
0 (0)
0 (0)
Correlation between iMRI and pMRI
Among 34 cases with results of pMRI, there were 14 (41.2%) cases that did not undergo
additional resection after iMRI scanning as gross total resection had already been
accomplished (10 cases) or the surgeon decided it was unsafe to continue the resection
(4 cases). There were two cases with false negative for residual tumor on iMRI, both
of which were Cushing's disease with residual tumor volume on pMRI of 0.5 mL and 0.1 mL.
Additionally, the authors compared the result of iMRI to pMRI to analyze their correlation
([Table 4 ]).
Table 4
Correlation between iMRI and pMRI in cases without additional resection
Case
Diagnosis
Preop. intention
Preop. tumor volume (mL)
iMRI tumor volume (mL)
pMRI tumor
volume (mL)
iMRI EOR
pMRI EOR
1
Parietotemporal astrocytoma
GTR
10.9
0
0
GTR
GTR
2
Lateral ventricle ependymoma
GTR
1.5
0
0
GTR
GTR
3
Temporal astrocytoma
GTR
11.5
0
0
GTR
GTR
4
Insular anaplastic oligodendroglioma
NTR
76.4
54.9
24.2
STR
STR
5
Frontal anaplastic oligodendroglioma
GTR
20
0
0
GTR
GTR
6
Pontocerebellar DMG*
STR
38.5
15.7
15.2
STR
STR
7
Cushing's disease
GTR
0.1
0
0
GTR
GTR
8
Cushing's disease
GTR
0.2
0
0
GTR
GTR
9
Cushing's disease
GTR
1.4
0
0.5
GTR
STR
10
Cushing's disease
GTR
1.5
0
0
GTR
GTR
11
Cushing's disease
GTR
0.8
0
0.1
GTR
STR
12
Non-secreting adenoma
GTR
9.4
1.9
1
STR
STR
13
Non-secreting adenoma
GTR
11.8
0
0
GTR
GTR
14
Clival chordoma
GTR
13.1
1.7
1.6
STR
STR
2
ICC = 0.861 (95% CI 0.566–0.955)[† ]
Kappa's coefficient = 0.696[‡ ]
Abbreviations: DMG, diffuse midline glioma; preop., preoperative.
†
p < 0.001.
‡
p = 0.006.
Discussion
The pathology in our study reflected the type of tumor the surgeon encountered when
the intraoperative EOR was difficult to determine. This may be due to the indistinguishable
appearance of a glioma or blind spot in pituitary tumors or skull base tumors. In
the present study, a majority of tumors were gliomas followed by pituitary tumors,
similar to previous publications studying the use of iMRI in cranial surgery.[2 ]
[18 ]
[19 ]
[20 ]
[21 ]
iMRI and Surgeon's Decision Making
Surgeon preoperative intention is generally a surrogate for the relation between the
tumor and nearby important structures where GTR, NTR, and STR imply the tumor is clear
from, is adjacent to, and involves the nearby eloquent structures, respectively. In
our study, a high proportion of intention for GTR suggested most tumors were located
away from the eloquent structures and could be removed safely. Thus, residual tumors
were likely the result of the imprecise surgeon's perception rather than being prohibited
by nearby vital structures.
Although surgeon preoperative intention for GTR was 70% of the cases, intraoperative
perceptions of GTR reduced to 50%. However, when asked if the iMRI was not available,
the surgeons indicated only five (12.5%) cases for continued resection. This implied
that, in most cases, the surgeons believed it was unsafe to continue resection without
additional information from iMRI.
After iMRI scanning, the actual cases of GTR dropped even further to 30% as compared
with the surgeon's perception prior to iMRI and the iMRI result was unexpected to
the surgeon in 19 (47.5%) cases. The discrepancy between surgeon assessment and the
actual result of the iMRI has been well documented in previous publications. Scherer
et al. studied surgeons' perceptions in supratentorial glioma and found an average
negative predictive value for additional resection of 43.6%.[22 ] Even in a center with a high case volume, Lau et al reported an overall accuracy
of the surgeons' perceptions of EOR in glioma surgery to be 79.6%.[23 ] Khunt et al reported 293 cases of glioma undergoing iMRI-guided craniotomy with
residual tumor remaining unresected in 17.7% among the cases intended for GTR.[9 ]
In our series, iMRI not only identified an unexpected EOR but also revealed unexpected
locations of residual tumors. These unexpected locations could have potentially led
to unnecessary re-operation if not caught by the iMRI. After iMRI scanning in our
study, additional resection was performed in 24 (60%) patients. This demonstrated
that iMRI delivers useful information allowing the surgeon to revise planning and
perform additional resection during the same scheduled operation.
There were six cases where the surgeon chose to continue resection despite an expected
iMRI result. This suggested that surgeons may initially take a more conservative approach
and use iMRI findings along with re-registration of the neuro-navigation system to
guide the final part of the resection. This practice offers a certain advantage because
after the majority of the “laborious” part of the tumor is removed, the iMRI gives
updated images of the remnant of the tumor. With a reduced volume of the tumor, the
surgeon has a better orientation of the tumor to the surrounding eloquent structures.
Along with the more accurate neuro-navigation system following re-registration, the
surgeon can focus on fine-tuning the final resection. However, this practice may produce
low initial EOR rates and overestimate the rate of EOR increase, which has been established
in the literature.[5 ]
[8 ]
[9 ] Leroy et al has advocated exactly this staged approach in hemispheric glioma surgery,
where the more definitive resection took place after iMRI scanning and neuro-navigation
update.[24 ]
iMRI and EOR
Among 34 cases with pMRI results, when the surgeon decided to stop resection, the
overall rate of GTR had reached 29.4%. With iMRI results, the surgeon opted to continue
resection in 58.8% of the cases that resulted in meaningful additional resection of
35.3% and an increase in the overall GTR to 55.9%. This benefit was not equally distributed
across all tumor types. In glioma, the additional resection was performed in 73.9%
of cases and the rate of GTR increased from 17.4% to 56.5%. This underscores the infiltrative
nature of glioma, which makes it indistinguishable from surrounding brain tissue even
with the neuro-navigation technology. This is similar to other hemispheric glioma
series where high-field iMRI-guided additional resection ranged from 25.9% to 68.4%.[8 ]
[9 ]
[13 ] The “others” group consisting of three cases of mixed tumor types also benefited
from the iMRI with additional resection in two of the cases increasing GTR from 0%
to 66.7%. The benefit was clearly lower for pituitary tumors where additional resection
was performed in only one case without improvement of EOR. Our result in the pituitary
group was in contrast to the published data where iMRI-guided additional resection
occurred in 30% to 62% of cases with increase GTR of 3% to 20%.[17 ]
[25 ]
[26 ]
iMRI versus pMRI
The ability of iMRI to provide accurate data are important because there are several
factors that can impact the correct interpretation of iMRI. Disturbance factors that
can impact accuracy may include residual blood product, hemostatic materials, brain
shift, intracranial air, and brain swelling.[27 ]
[28 ]
[29 ] As a result, the authors analyzed the correlation between iMRI and pMRI in the cases
where additional resection was not performed. Among 14 cases with no additional resection,
despite overall strong agreement of residual tumor volume[30 ] and substantial correlation of EOR,[31 ] there were two cases with false-negative results, both of which were Cushing's disease
with residual tumor volume of 0.5 and 0.1 mL. This further explained the low additional
resection rate in the pituitary group. The inaccuracy of high-field iMRI has previously
been reported in the series of pituitary tumor surgery showing variation rates ranging
from 16.4% to 28.1%.[16 ]
[32 ]
[33 ] The study comparing high-field iMRI to pMRI in other types of tumor is limited.
Jankovski et al reported discrepancy of 21% between 3T iMRI and pMRI in their 23 cranial
tumor cases.[34 ] Further investigations with a larger number of patients are warranted for a more
definitive conclusion.
iMRI and Drawbacks
Despite the aforementioned benefits, iMRI also poses certain drawbacks and concerns.
First, iMRI causes a major interruption to the operation due to the temporary closure
and covering of the surgical field, removal of surgical instruments and retractors,
and transportation of the patient into the bore of an iMRI. After iMRI scanning, the
surgical field has to be re-draped and re-opened, surgical instruments, and retractor
system are re-assembled before the operation is resumed. In our study, although the
average scanning time was approximately 36 minutes, the average duration of the entire
interruption was over 80 minutes. This interruption remained constant even with more
experienced operating room personnel. This can lead to the issues of operating room
utilization, increased anesthetic time, and concerns of surgical infection. Moreover,
it causes major inconveniences to repeat iMRI several times per operation, which is
why all cases in our study had only one iMRI scan. This duration of interruption is
considerably longer as compared with other assisting technologies such as intraoperative
ultrasound or intraoperative fluorescence, which pose very minimal or no interruption.
Future studies to improve case selection may help maximize the benefit of iMRI utilization.
Second, the risk of increased neurological deficit due to more aggressive resection-guided
by iMRI is also a concern. However, as long as the surgeon remains cognizant of the
eloquent areas or utilizes neurophysiological monitoring when indicated, the incidence
of neurological decline has been found no different from conventional operations.[7 ]
[12 ]
[35 ] The overall rate of neurological deterioration in the present study was 25% with
permanent deficit of 10% which is similar to conventional surgery in our institute.[36 ]
[37 ]
Third, although there is a concern for sterility breach during preparatory process
and around the time of iMRI scanning, the rate of postoperative surgical infection
and neurological complications in the present study was not different from conventional
cranial surgery.[38 ]
[39 ]
Illustrative cases
Case 1 : A 27-year-old male patient with left medial frontal low-grade astrocytoma presented
with 2-month history of epilepsy. After initial resection, iMRI showed residual tumor
at the anterior border of the resection cavity. Additional tumor removal resulted
in gross total resection. There was no postoperative neurological deficit ([Fig. 2 ]).
Case 2 : A 52-year-old female patient with recurrent right temporal glioblastoma. After initial
resection, iMRI showed residual tumor located anteriorly. The patient underwent additional
tumor removal and postoperative MRI showed no residual tumor. There was no postoperative
neurological deficit ([Fig. 3 ]).
Fig. 2 Case 1: Left medial frontal low-grade astrocytoma located anteriorly to the precentral
gyrus. After initial resection, iMRI shows residual tumor at the anterior border of
the cavity (double arrow ). Following additional resection, postoperative MRI shows no residual tumor.
Fig. 3 Case 2: Recurrent right temporal glioblastoma (arrow head ). After initial resection, iMRI shows residual tumor at the anterior border of the
cavity (double arrow ). Following additional resection, postoperative MRI shows no residual tumor.
The present study has demonstrated iMRI data can help the surgeon make more informed
decisions and improve planning in several ways: (1) iMRI provides objective EOR as
the surgeon's perception is not always reliable and surgeons frequently overestimate
the EOR, (2) iMRI gives the location of residual tumors which may be overlooked, (3)
iMRI allows the surgeon to initially perform a conservative resection and approach
the final or critical part of the resection after reviewing an updated anatomy from
iMRI scanning, and (4) iMRI provides an updated image set to the neuro-navigation
system to account for the altered anatomy.
There are limitations to the study worth mentioning. The retrospective nature of this
study incurs many patient selection biases. A small number of cases, an uncontrolled
design, and heterogeneity of the tumors in this study prevented a stronger conclusion
of the impact of iMRI. The authors also did not take into account the financial aspect
of iMRI, which is a well-known barrier to implementation of this intraoperative technology.[40 ]
Conclusion
In cranial tumor surgery, the surgeon's assessment of EOR is frequently imprecise.
iMRI data can improve this precision by identifying the presence of residual tumors,
providing tumor locations, giving spatial relations data of the tumor to nearby eloquent
structures, and updating the neuro-navigation system for the final stage of tumor
resection.