一個外科小組最近發現，在外科決策中使用3特斯拉核磁共振影像(MRI)掃描儀，能夠預測手術預后，從而改善患者病情，降低不成功腫瘤切除手術的可能性。

使用這種3特斯拉MRI掃描，來自三個專業領域Mayo診所外科醫生，包括神經外科、直腸科和整形外科，在手術之前，得到了所有5例患者的腫瘤以及與神經關系的詳細影像資料，從而準確預測了那些患者能夠從手術中獲益。三例患者的腫瘤遠離主要坐骨神經，腫瘤被成功切除。所有患者疼痛緩解，術后1年沒有復發。其它2例發現腫瘤跨越血管，手術會損害神經，這些患者沒有接受手術治療。
 
High-power MRI Helps Surgeons Predict Cancer Outcomes
 
A surgical team has found that using a 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner in surgical decision-making provides a new degree of potential to predict surgical outcomes that improves patient care by decreasing the possibility of unsuccessful tumor-removal surgeries.

With the 3-Tesla MRI images, Mayo Clinic surgeons from three specialties--neurosurgery, colorectal, and orthopedic surgery--obtained adequately detailed images of the tumor and nerve relationship before surgery in all five cases to accurately predict which patients would benefit from surgery. In three cases, the tumor was predicted to be distinct from the main sciatic nerve, and the tumor was effectively removed. All three patients experienced relief from pain and had no recurrent growth one year after surgery. In the other two instances, the tumor was predicted to be so tangled up in the nerve that surgery would have damaged the nerve. Those patients did not undergo surgery.