'Neurosurgeons want the quickest, most accurate information to help them make decisions during brain tumor surgery. A new method could accelerate that process. A new approach to the practice of surgical pathology for brain tumor patients could make for a powerful combination: more accurate, safer and more efficient operations.
Neurosurgeons and pathologists at Michigan Medicine are the first to execute stimulated Raman histology (SRH), a method that improves speed and diagnostic efficiency, in an operating room. They detail the advance in a new Nature Biomedical Engineering paper.
The researchers imaged tissue from 101 neurosurgical patients using conventional methods and the new method. Both techniques produced accurate results, they found, but the new method was much faster.
SRH, if applied widely, could change the pace and structure of an operation.
“By achieving excellent image quality in fresh tissues, we’re able to make a diagnosis during surgery,” says first author Daniel A. Orringer, M.D., assistant professor of neurosurgery at the University of Michigan Medical School. “This eliminates the lengthy process of sending tissues out of the OR for processing and interpretation.”'
Co-authors of this manuscript include, from neurosurgery: Todd Hollon, Shawn Hervey-Jumper, Hugh Garton, Cormac Maher, Jason Heth, Oren Sagher, and Drew Wilkinson. Also, several colleagues from U-M neuropathology: Sriram Venneti, Kathryn McFadden, Amanda Fisher-Hubbard, Andrew Lieberman, and Sandra Camelo-Piragua.
Todd Hollon, M.D.
Hugh J. L. Garton, M.D., M.H.Sc.
Jason A. Heth, M.D.
Oren Sagher, M.D.
