As intraoperative ultrasound imaging together with MRI and navigation are continually being improved. please let me share with you how I got started early in my career:
The anatomy of the brain is beautiful, whether it be blood vessels for aneurysm surgeons or the brain itself for me. The image shows the surgical field for a low-grade glioma, a small one in a gyrus, but which one and how positioned? CT had just been invented and diagnosed it while still small - MRI was still to come.
In the operating room we only had ultrasound imaging available, hence the start of my long career in surgical visualization of the brain.
My doctoral thesis 1984 on real-time ultrasound imaging is our story among 4-5 early groups in the world.
Koivukangas J (1984) Ultrasound imaging in operative neurosurgery: An experimental and clinical study with special reference to ultrasound holographic B (UHB) imaging. Doctoral dissertation. Acta Universitatis Ouluensis D 115. Oulu University Printing Center.
In the thesis, pp 42-91 is thorough history, 96-97 the problem described above, 100-101 the first description of serial imaging of tumor resection, followed by an exhaustive bibliography.
Critically acclaimed by Dohrmann 1985 in Surgical Neurology.
THESIS PDF