Venous Thromboembolism during Interventional MRI-Guided Stereotactic Surgery.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Interventional MRI (iMRI) allows real-time confirmation of electrode and microcatheter location in anesthetized patients; however, MRI-compatible pneumatic compression devices (PCD) to reduce the periprocedural venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk are not commercially available. Given the paucity of literature on VTE following iMRI surgery, better characterizing patients suffering this complication and the incidence of this event following iMRI procedures is pivotal for defining best surgical practices. We aim to investigate the incidence of postoperative VTE in iMRI procedures without the use of PCD.

METHODS: Medical records and operative times of patients were retrospectively reviewed. Patient demographics and mean surgical durations were reported with statistical comparisons via ANOVA and the 2-tailed Student t test, an α of 0.05, and the Bonferroni correction. Patients experiencing postoperative VTE underwent an in-depth chart review.

RESULTS: Two out of two hundred ten (0.95%) iMRI procedures resulted in postoperative VTE events. There were statistically significant differences in procedure times between unilateral electrode (157.5 ± 5.7 min), bilateral electrode (193.6 ± 2.9 min), and bilateral gene therapy procedures (467.3 ± 26.5 min). Both patients had longer-than-average operative times for their respective procedures.

CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of postoperative VTE is low following iMRI procedures, even without the use of PCD during surgery.