Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital introduces new MRI and CO2 surgical laser technologies
The Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at Texas A&M University’s College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences significantly enhanced its surgical and diagnostic capabilities with the installation of two major pieces of medical technology—a mobile magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) unit and a CO2 surgical laser.
“The College of Veterinary Medicine is dedicated to maintain state-of-the-art instrumentation that improves the clinical services we provide our patients, their owners and our referring veterinarians,” said Dr. H. Richard Adams, dean of veterinary medicine. “Many of the technological advances in human medicine were actually developed through the use of animals, and are now accessible in clinical veterinary medicine.”
The addition of MRI capabilities with the arrival of the Magnetom Impact/Expert Plus MRI unit improves the ability of veterinarians to image and diagnose many conditions and disease, especially those of the brain and spinal cord.
“The resolution we’ll have when looking at soft tissues, such as the brain, will be far superior to what we could achieve using cat scan (CT),” said Dr. Ben Young, a veterinary radiologist with the Small Animal Hospital. “Overall, we are very pleased to have acquired this unit. It will be utilized to advance research as well as diagnosis of our clinical patients.”
The Neurology/Neurosurgery service will see the greatest impact of the new MRI.
“MRI will allow us to see strokes, brain malformations and a host of other conditions that are very difficult to image with CT,” said Dr. Jonathan Levine, veterinary neurologist. “This will lead to improved clinical diagnoses and more effective neurological treatments.”
Another first for the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital is the addition of a CO2 laser, which can replace a scalpel blade for many surgical procedures.
“For procedures that normally cause a lot of bleeding such as some oral surgery, the laser will help us reduce blood loss as well as post-operative pain,” said Dr. Mark Stickney, veterinary medical surgeon. “We are able to see our patients recover in a shorter period of time, which is beneficial to both the patient and their owners.”
The CO2 laser is one of only two in use in the area, and Texas A&M is the only veterinary medical school in the country with this model of CO2 surgical laser. Both the MRI and the laser are typically found only in major metropolitan areas, making their arrival at Texas A&M a major benefit to referring veterinarians and the pet-owning public in the region. 
Photo Caption:
The image above is one example of how the newly arrived MRI technology is able to provide clinicians with another diagnostic tool that can be used in both research and treatment.
