BK BLOG

There is a better chance of successful treatment of prostate cancer when it is detected early and confined to the prostate gland.¹ Increasingly, multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) is being recommended before biopsy as part of a prostate cancer pathway.² Compared with TRUS-biopsy, mpMRI has significantly better sensitivity and negative predictive value for clinically important prostate cancer.² If used as a triage test before first prostate biopsy, mpMRI could reduce unnecessary biopsies by a quarter; mpMRI could also reduce over-diagnosis of clinically insignificant prostate cancer and improve detection of clinically significant cancer.²

Recently, we spoke with Dr. Jos J. Immerzeel, the radiation oncologist at Andros Mannenkliniek (The Andros Men’s Health Institutes) in Amsterdam. Dr. Immerzeel uses bkFusion to plan and guide transperineal prostate biopsies using local anesthesia, which you can read about here.

For Dr. Immerzeel, an MR-ultrasound fusion biopsy using bkFusion takes approximately 20 minutes, and patients usually spend less than an hour at the clinic. One reason for the short procedure time is that the MRI contours have been done beforehand, so the patient spends very little time on the table.

“Brain shift makes it impossible to rely solely on the use of neuronavigation.”

We recently shared a blog post featuring Prof. Geirmund Unsgård, Professor Emeritus of Neurosurgery at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Prof. Unsgård has used ultrasound in neurosurgery for over two decades. Read our previous post here.

Dr. Jos Immerzeel has performed over 1000 MR-ultrasound prostate biopsy procedures using bkFusion. He currently carries out bkFusion procedures at Andros Mannenkliniek in Amsterdam, and his preferred method is transperineal (TP) biopsies with local anesthesia.

"In neurosurgery, you should be sure, and ultrasound gives you
certainty and makes you feel confident as a surgeon."

Geirmund Unsgård is Professor Emeritus of Neurosurgery at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), where he worked for 30 years. For 22 years he served as Chief of the Neurosurgical Department at St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital, in Trondheim, Norway. An expert of ultrasound-guided neurosurgery, Prof. Unsgård has used intraoperative ultrasound imaging to guide his neurosurgical procedures for over two decades.

Predictive Fusion^TM  is powered by MIMReslicer which reslices and reorients supine MRI images to LLD or Lithotomy position during the Radiology review thus addressing registration errors before the procedure.  Unlike rigid and elastic fusion, which attempt to correct errors after the ultrasound is acquired, Predictive Fusion removes errors before acquiring the ultrasound. How? Using a proprietary on-screen tool, the radiologist reslices and reorients the MRI images to the expected biopsy position, as a result, the registration process typically requires seconds. Predictive Fusion allows you to adjust and correct before taking a biopsy and was designed to fit your traditional biopsy workflow, requiring minimal extra steps and providing a fusion you can trust.

Today, we have exciting news to share. BK Ultrasound launched the all new bkSpecto ultrasound system in the urology market.

The new bkSpecto ultrasound system is the latest member of the BK Ultrasound product family. It comes complete with what you’d expect from a BK system — superior imaging capabilities that enable real-time image guidance with an easy-to-use, mobile platform — plus a few new things. Launching first into the urology market, learn how it will help push the boundaries in your urology practice.

In this video, Dr. Wang Hongguang, hepatobiliary surgeon at PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China talks about laparoscopic ultrasound and why it is useful for ablation procedures. Specifically, Dr. Wang Hongguang discusses:

In this video, Prostate cancer survivor Allen Wynn describes how he feels that having a doctor who uses cutting edge technology made a difference to him when he was diagnosed with a prostate cancer that required treatment. PSA tests and Digital Rectal Exams are important tools for prostate screening but often raise as many questions as they answer. Systematic biopsies don’t always give enough information to be conclusive. Fusing real-time ultrasound images with pre-exam MRI data gives you better guidance to help accurately target lesions identified in the MRI images, potentially reducing the risk of missing high-grade tumors or under-staging tumors for active surveillance. Watch this video to learn more about the bkFusion system.