MRI-VISIBLE SUTURES FOR MINIMALLY INVASIVE IMAGE-GUIDED ANASTOMOSIS

摘要

When performing image-guided surgical procedures, a surgical fastener (19) (e.g., a suture or staple) is embedded or coated with an MRI-visible contrast agent or material. Depending on the type of MRI visible material (e.g., paramagnetic, superparamagnetic, diamagnetic, chemical shift, ultra-short echo time, etc.), a corresponding imaging sequence is selected and executed to generate contrast in an image of the surgical fastener. This image is presented to a user in real time, such as during an arthroscopic procedure, or may be generated and presented after a surgical procedure to image the fastener(s) and permit evaluation of the quality or success of the surgery.