Intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging

Until recently, both CT and MRI have been primarily employed in the preoperative diagnosis and surgical planning for lesions within the head and neck; real-time or intraoperative use of these modalities has been quite limited. Several groups have explored CT for localization and needle biopsy of head and neck tumors [4]. CT has shown promise in adding to the accuracy of fine needle biopsy for nodal staging of head and neck tumors [5]. Even more recently, intraoperative MRI has been explored as a surgical adjunct for biopsy and operative treatment of head and neck lesions [3,6]. The advent of new technology has largely been responsible for these contemporary advances.