Bristol Children's Hospital gets 3T MRI scanner

The scanner will be able to generate more accurate brain scans

Pioneering neurosurgery equipment has been installed at a Bristol hospital, allowing surgeons to operate in the deepest parts of the brain.

The £3.5m 3T MRI scanner at the Royal Hospital for Children is the first in the south of England; the only other in the UK is at Alder Hey in Liverpool.

The scanner's image-guidance technology allows surgeons to conduct scans during a procedure to track progress.

It means children need undergo only one anaesthetic, reducing distress.

Mike Carter, consultant neurosurgeon at the children's hospital said the scanner was "150,000 times more powerful than the earth's magnetic field", providing "phenomenally accurate 3D images".

"It lets us see abnormalities in the brain - such as lesions which cause epilepsy - that we may not have previously been able to see, and allows us to look at the ways memories are formed and where they are stored," said Mr Carter.

The scanner was paid for by the Wallace and Gromit Grand Appeal and through donations to its Gromit Unleashed arts trail in 2013, as well as major donations from Children With Cancer and Garfield Weston Foundation.