by
Lisa Chamoff, Contributing Reporter | March 02, 2015
From the March 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Niels Bakker, marketing manager for Philips, isn’t so sure the room has the best setup for a procedure like TAVR, which needs more flexible positioning of imaging equipment and higher sterility for transapical access. “When we first started hybrid ORs, we just used cath lab equipment and placed them in an OR environment,” Bakker says. “The positioning capabilities of cath lab systems are not optimal for a hybrid OR, so Philips developed dedicated hybrid OR solutions like the FlexMove that give higher flexibility… I think the hybrid OR is still a very valid proposition if you look at the broad spectrum of new SHD procedures emerging.”
New imaging products
There are other new imaging products that promise to accelerate the trend to reducing cost and improving patient care in special procedure rooms.
In general for TAVR procedures, multimodality imaging is important. To that end, last year Philips released a second version of its EchoNavigator, which first came to the market in 2013. The new version fuses live X-ray and 3-D cardiac ultrasound imaging, or echocardiography, during structural heart disease procedures.
Previously, the EchoNavigator oriented echo and X-ray in the same projection, but the images were still side by side, says Bakker of Philips. The second release actually fuses the two images together in real time. “Echo allows you to see the soft tissue anatomy that you are treating and the X-ray gives you an excellent view on your devices,” Bakker says. “Fusing the images makes it easier.”
At last year’s RSNA, Toshiba released its Infinix 4DCT, which overlays real-time CT images over fluoroscopic images. David Sloop, director of Toshiba’s X-ray vascular business unit, says the technology improves the workflow of oncology and cardiac procedures, allowing physicians to plan, treat and verify in one place, rather than transferring patients to the CT lab and dragging out procedure times.
“Often in the regular lab, doctors can’t see the smaller tumors,” Sloop says. “They have to take patient off the gurney and bring them to the CT lab, or use a CT image from a day or two ago. Now, they can do all that in one room.”
The Infinix 4DCT system is FDA cleared with the Infinix Elite and Aquilion ONE ViSION Edition configuration, as well as for use with the Aquilion PRIME CT system. Also last year, Toshiba released the Infinix Essential value system for interventional cardiology. The system has a slim, off-center C-arm design, allowing steep angulations for optimized vessel profiling during cardiac interventions.
