IMRIS, Inc. announced US Food and Drug Administration clearance of the newest generation VISIUS(R) Surgical Theatre which integrates Siemens' latest high-field MR scanners. The new core imaging technology based on Siemens Aera 1.5T(tesla) and Skyra 3.0T technology helps IMRIS deliver better image quality with higher signal-to-noise ratio, faster 3D image acquisition, and improved ease-of-use and workflow during neurosurgical procedures using intraoperative MRI (iMRI). The addition of these MR systems expands the 1.5T and 3.0T MRI choices hospitals have when considering the unique, ceiling-mounted IMRIS solution for intraoperative imaging which brings the MRI to the patient during the procedure.

The first installation of this new generation VISIUS Surgical Theatre will be a four-room hybrid operating room suite, known as the Center for Surgical Innovation (CSI) at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH. "Surgeons are too often limited by what they cannot see - anatomy that is difficult to reach or diseases that are not visible to the naked eye," says Sohail Mirza MD, medical director of CSI and chair of orthopedics at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. The Dartmouth-Hitchcock installation will also include a VISIUS intraoperative CT (iCT), which utilizes the technology of the 64-slice Siemens SOMATOM(R) Definition AS scanner, making it the only operating suite in the world with both VISIUS iMRI and iCT modalities able to serve multiple operating rooms (ORs) without moving the patient.

Inside a VISIUS Surgical Theatre equipped with either high-field iMRI or iCT, surgeons have on-demand access to real-time data and imaging, during the procedure from the OR table. The Company also designs and manufactures proprietary head fixation devices, imaging coils, and OR tables for use in this unique and multifunctional intraoperative environment.