Clinical application of 3.0 T intraoperative magnetic resonance combined with multimodal neuronavigation in resection of cerebral eloquent area glioma

Glioma is the most common tumor among central nervous system tumors; surgical intervention presents difficulties. This is especially the case for gliomas in so-called “eloquent areas,” as surgical resection threatens vital structures adjacent to the tumor. Intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (iMRI) combined with multimodal neuronavigation may prove beneficial during surgery. This study explored the applicability of 3.0 T high field iMRI combined with multimodal neuronavigation in the resection of gliomas in eloquent brain areas. We reviewed 40 patients with a glioma located in the eloquent brains areas who underwent treatment in the Neurosurgery Department of Peking University International Hospital between December 2015 and August 2017. The experimental group included 20 patients treated using iMRI assistance technology (iMRI group). The remaining 20 patients underwent treatment by conventional neuronavigation (non-iMRI group). Tumor resection degree, preoperative and postoperative ability of daily living scale (Barthel index), infection rate, and operative time were compared between the 2 groups. No difference in infection rate was observed between the 2 groups. However, compared with the non-iMRI group, the iMRI group had a higher resection rate (96.55 ± 4.03% vs 87.70 ± 10.98%, P = .002), postoperative Barthel index (90.75 ± 12.90 vs 9.25 ± 16.41, P = .018), as well as a longer operation time (355.85 ± 61.40 vs 302.45 ± 64.09, P = .011). The use of iMRI technology can achieve a relatively higher resection rate among cases of gliomas in eloquent brain areas, with less incidence of postoperative neurological deficits. Although the operative time using iMRI was longer than that taken to perform conventional navigation surgery, the surgical infection rate in these 2 procedures showed no significant difference.