Cincinnati Children’s Opens Hybrid Operating Room

Friday, February 02, 2018

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has teamed up with Philips, a global leader in health technology, to create the first Philips Azurion hybrid operating room in pediatric medicine.

The hybrid OR combines surgery and interventional radiology so that more minimally invasive procedures can be performed in one space using image guidance. The hybrid OR will include a state-of-the-art x-ray system equipped with additional image fusion and navigation capabilities.

Image guidance is currently used to guide needles or surgical instruments using x-ray, fluoroscopy (live x-ray), ultrasound, or CT guidance. This typically occurs in an interventional radiology suite. The hybrid OR adds these capabilities to a surgical operating room to provide navigation during surgical procedures.

This kind of collaborative vision between surgical and radiological disciplines is virtually unheard of but is expected to be of tremendous benefit to patients and the healthcare system. Collaboration can reduce the risk of complications, add precision to surgical procedures, and save time and healthcare dollars.

The procedures will take place all in one suite and without interrupting the procedure to transport the patient while under anesthesia to radiology. This will improve patient flow, decrease anesthesia time and increase patient safety.

Cincinnati Children’s is an important collaborator with Philips in exploring the possibilities of a new surgical navigation technology for spine, lung and other surgeries. Cincinnati Children’s is the first institution in the world to do clinical research on this augmented reality technology, which would allow not only for pre-procedure planning but also for real-time navigation.

Through video display, 3D imaging will be superimposed on the patient, which will provide surgeons and interventional radiologists a unique augmented reality view of the inside and outside of the patient during surgical procedures. In addition to having all the capabilities of an interventional radiology system, the interventional system will ultimately integrate video cameras into the flat detector of the system’s c-arm, allowing surgical navigation using augmented reality. Cincinnati Children’s surgeons and interventional radiologists will be presenting their research experience using this augmented reality technology at the American Pediatric Surgical Association and the International Pediatric Endosurgery Group annual scientific meetings in April 2018.

This augmented reality surgical navigation technology is not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Cincinnati Children’s Interventional Radiology Translational Research and Simulation Lab is equipped with the same technologies that will be available in the hybrid OR. This research lab allows interventional radiologists and surgeons the opportunity to develop, validate, and master novel surgical procedures in a simulated environment. These new techniques and procedures can then be immediately applied to patients in the hybrid OR.