Sponsored • Hygiene
Coatings defeat pathogens
Nosocomial infections are dangerous - sometimes having grave consequences.
Surgery
News • Optical fiber probe
New tool to aid breast cancer surgery
University of Adelaide researchers have developed an optical fiber probe that distinguishes breast cancer tissue from normal tissue – potentially allowing surgeons to be much more precise when removing breast cancer.
Sponsored • Workflow
Opt for state-of-the-art visual technology
In today’s digitised world, hospitals are already embracing the benefits which technology brings to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Against a backdrop of stretched resources and operational scrutiny hospital managers are able to address the needs of multiple stakeholders through hospital-wide digitalisation.
News • Transplantation
Preserving donor lungs longer makes transplant more elective
A new method which doubles the usual time donor lungs can remain outside the body can benefit patients, staff and allow retrieval of donor lungs across greater geographical areas, says a study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.
News • Prevention
Design of operating theatre reduces hospital infections
In rare cases, a dangerous bacterial infection occurs following major cardiac surgery. A device which is used for the regulation of body temperature has been found to be responsible for this. Since this discovery was made, Bern University Hospital has been working on guidelines for infection prevention.
News • Children’s hospitals
Supporting innovation at Alder Hey
The Sony Healthcare Solutions Team supported Alder Hey on its journey to a new site designed with the children it treats in mind, complete with new ORs and the latest technology throughout.
Article • Computer intelligence
Cognition-guided surgery – a rocky road
Surgery will change – with all the challenges that developments such as Big Data create there are no two ways about it. However, how deep those changes run remains to be seen. In a rather young field of research, scientists look at the ways all components used during surgery can be interlinked. Professor Beat Müller, co-initiator of the project ‘Cognition-Guided Surgery’, explains results…
Article • Surgery 4.0
Robots will not see off human specialists
Big Data, automation, and artificial intelligence – no doubt, all these developments will have an impact on surgery. During our interview, Professor Hubertus Feußner, Head of the interdisciplinary research group ‘Minimally invasive interdisciplinary therapy intervention’ at the Technical University Munich, Germany, and Professor Christoph Thümmler, Professor for eHealth at Edinburgh…
Article • Neurology
The 3-D printed brain tumour
3-D printed tumour-like constructs will be used by a research team at Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, to raise research to a new level and successfully lead to new treatment options.
Article • Knowledge
Complex interventions must be learned
Technological advances increasingly enable endoscopists to treat disease and perform surgical procedures. However, professionals must work hard to learn and maintain knowledge of complex interventions, says Dr Ferran González-Huix Lladó, President of the Spanish society of digestive endoscopy (SEED)
Interview • Endoscopic
NOTES – An emerging trans-disciplinary treatment
Jose Ramon Armengol-Miro has directed the World Institute for Digestive Endoscopy Research (WIDER) since 2007. There, he leads the investigation of Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES). The technique was introduced to gastrointestinal endoscopy over ten years ago. Speaking with European Hospital the expert assessed its use and value today.
News • medical-grade
NDS announces battery-powered wireless mobile display
NDS has announced it is prepared to launch in Europe its highly anticipated ZeroWire® Mobile battery-powered display stand solution at the MEDICA World Forum for Medicine in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Article • Radical change
Malta takes a closer look at 3-D printing
21st century technology has outpaced our expectations. One such example is the invention of advanced digital manufacturing techniques, better known as 3-D printing. Patients and the medical community are yet to see the full implementation of this technology within healthcare.
Article • Brain functions transfer
Pioneering cancer surgery
Brain cancer treatment is taking a major step ahead as Spanish surgeons pioneer a new technique that spares language and motion functions. This splendid development might even one day result in epilepsy surgery.
Article • Mechanical ventilation
Top anaesthesiologist stresses automation limits
Mechanical ventilation and subspecialisation are key aspects of modern anaesthesia and critical care practice according to Dr Javier Garcia Fernandez, Head of Critical Care and Anaesthesiology at University Hospital Puerta de Hierro in Madrid.
News • Implants
Screws that fit the body’s notches
Complex bone fractures are often set with titanium or steel screws and plates. However, if these remain in the body for some time, they can cause health problems. A new bioceramic screw nail has the capacity of replacing the currently used metal components. It can be easily introduced into bone and does not have to be removed.
News • Endoscopic surgery
NDS to launch 4K UHD display
NDS will showcase its new 4K Ultra-High-Definition (UHD) visualization technology with the launch of the Radiance® Ultra 4K 32” monitor during the MEDICA World Forum for Medicine.
News • Connected to Heart
Fetal surgery successfully removes life-threatening tumor
For the first time, fetal medicine experts have performed prenatal heart surgery to remove a life-threatening tumor, called intrapericardial teratoma. The patient, who underwent the operation at 24 weeks of gestation while in his mother’s womb, is now a healthy three-year-old preschooler. “We have shown that we can accurately diagnose and provide a prognosis for this rare condition in utero,…
News • 3D Printing
Promising biomaterial to build better bones
A Northwestern University research team has developed a 3D printable ink that produces a synthetic bone implant that rapidly induces bone regeneration and growth. This hyperelastic “bone” material, whose shape can be easily customized, one day could be especially useful for the treatment of bone defects in children.
News • Transplant Patients
Algorithm illuminates need of high-volume hospitals
Using the results from a computerized mathematical model, Johns Hopkins researchers investigated whether they could improve heart and lung transplantation procedures by transferring patients from low-volume to high-volume transplant centers.
Article • Microsurgery
Lower limb trauma – reconstruction or amputation?
‘Amputation v. reconstruction’ – a vital issue – was debated by two leading surgeons during the Microsurgical Lower Limb Reconstruction session at the Advances and Controversies in Reconstructive Microsurgery (ACRM) 2016 conference, held in the United Kingdom this May. Consultant Plastic Surgeon Umraz Khan, from North Bristol NHS Trust presented a plastic surgeon’s view, while Ben…
News • Noninvasive
Tremor: scalpel-free surgery proves effective
A study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine offers the most in-depth assessment yet of the safety and effectiveness of a high-tech alternative to brain surgery to treat the uncontrollable shaking caused by the most common movement disorder. And the news is very good.
Article • Controversy
TAVI is approved for lower risk patients
The Medtronic CoreValve Evolut R System received its CE Mark of approval this August to treat aortic stenosis in patients with an intermediate risk for undergoing conventional surgery for a valve replacement. This is a controversial indication for transcatheter aortic valve implantations (TAVI) – one that has been eagerly sought by some clinicians but resisted by others. Younger patients will…
Article • Surgery
Transplants – a much neglected topic
A small report in the press prompted examination of a much neglected topic. The report read ‘Heart Centre at University Hospital no longer carries out transplants’, and referred to the University Hospital Frankfurt, one of the 22 Heart Centres that perform these transplantations.
Article • Predicting plaques
Exposing the secrets of the heart
Coronary interventions often rely more on art than science as the decision to treat a patient tends to be based on what clinicians can see, a subjective interpretation of cardiac imaging. Two new techniques have emerged for cardiovascular diagnostics that are enabling software to help surgeons and cardiologists measure, and thereby better manage cardiac disease.