Impact of additional resection on new ischemic lesions and their clinical relevance after intraoperative 3 Tesla MRI in neuro-oncological surgery

Intraoperative MRI (ioMRI) has become a frequently used tool to improve maximum safe resection in brain tumor surgery. The usability of intraoperatively acquired diffusion-weighted imaging sequences to predict the extent and clinical relevance of new infarcts has not yet been studied. Furthermore, the question of whether more aggressive surgery after ioMRI leads to more or larger infarcts is of crucial interest for the surgeons’ operative strategy. Retrospective single-center analysis of a prospective registry of procedures from 2013 to 2019 with ioMRI was used. Infarct volumes in ioMRI/poMRI, lesion localization, mRS, and NIHSS were analyzed for each case. A total of 177 individual operations (60% male, mean age 45.5 years old) met the inclusion criteria. In 61% of the procedures, additional resection was performed after ioMRI, which resulted in a significantly higher number of new ischemic lesions postoperatively (p < .001). The development of new or enlarged ischemic areas upon additional resection could also be shown volumetrically (mean volume in ioMRI 0.39 cm(3) vs. poMRI 2.97 cm(3); p < .001). Despite the surgically induced new infarcts, mRS and NIHSS did not worsen significantly in cases with additional resection. Additionally, new perilesional ischemia in eloquently located tumors was not associated with an impaired neurological outcome. Additional resection after ioMRI leads to new or enlarged ischemic areas. However, these new infarcts do not necessarily result in an impaired neurological outcome, even when in eloquent brain areas. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s10143-020-01399-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.