TELEMEDICINE
Germany - The Barmherzigen Brüder Hospital in Regensburg, serves the populations of Lower Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate. 20 years ago, this hospital had only three operating theatres; today there are sixteen
Surgery
Surgical checklist saves lives
As part of a global Safe Surgery Saves Lives programme, a simple, short checklist of guidelines for safe surgical procedures developed by the World Alliance for Patient Safety of World Health Organization (WHO) has produced dramatic results in the first eight hospitals that tested it.
Surgical lights gain LED technology
The popularity of LED lighting units is inevitably increasing because LED light is infrared-free and cool, creating good work conditions for surgeons, and minimising the danger of tissue dehydration. In addition, the nearly limitless service life of LEDs lowers maintenance costs and ensures safe, reliable work, the operating theatre equipment and surgical lighting specialist Berchtold explains.
SurgiMedia
ISIS of France, specialist in computer-based surgical equipment, is unveiling the latest version of its SurgiMedia - an integrated display system for operating theatres (OT).
Computer assisted surgery, a synonym for new techniques being pursued in clinical practice
Surgical interventions are not radically altered by computer assistance but the quality and quantity of diagnostic information is continuously increasing leading to more transparency for patients. Therefore there is an increased demand on surgeons to improve the quality of therapeutic methods, operate with high precision and excellent reproducibility and document their work.
100% jump in sales of tissue oxygenation monitors
Newly released sales figures for the Tissue Oxygenation Monitor InSpectra show a huge jump - they have doubled in the last quarter, according to Peter Ickert, Vice President of Hutchinson Technology Inc, who added that current orders indicate that the trend will continue.
Re-organising an operating theatre
In September 2006, Dr Albrecht Bornscheuer (right) changed roles within the Hannover Medical School (MHH): the anaesthetist became a manager responsible for the coordination and capacity utilisation of the school's 41 operating theatres.
3-D textiles reduce pressure ulcer risk in the OR
Pressure ulcers are a risk for patients undergoing long surgical procedures. Gel pads, widely used to reduce this risk, are considered to have two major disadvantages: they compromise the patient's thermo regulation by "sucking" warmth from the body and they do not provide sufficient pressure reduction for prominent body parts.
Two for one - and one for two
Philips and Steris join forces to provide hybrid surgical rooms: a flexible environment for optimal imaging during open and minimally invasive cardiovasculare procedures that will optimise workflow and streamline room planning.
RT-dashboard for perioperative departments
Theatre management is one of the most challenging jobs in a hospital. Picis offers a solution: Recently it has launched the Picis Perioperative Dashboard, a Business Intelligence (BI) solution for the perioperative areas of the hospitals in Europe.
Hip and knee replacements - which technique is the right one?
Joint replacemtents are daily hospital routine. A first national study in England gives information about the outcome of the often performed hip resurfacing and unicondylar knee replacement techniques. Both surgical operations try to preserve bone - but are they medically sensible?
Latest SurgiMedia to be launched at MEDICA 2008
SurgiMedia is a multimedia digital-display station designed for use in operating theatres. It can be used for managing, checking and recording patient data.
Dräger celebrates half a century of Vapor care
For half a century, day after day, Dräger's Vapor has saved lives. Yet no patient knows this. Only the anaesthetist and surgical team can be fully aware of its value in keeping their patients unconscious and pain free during surgery, Dräger reports proudly, in the 50th year of Vapor's service.
World's first robot-assisted vascular surgery for aneurysm
London, UK - A Hansen Sensei* robot has been used to perform vascular surgery on a 78-year-old patient for an aneurysm that would have been thought too high-risk for conventional surgery.
Airflows fight hospital infections
Hospital infections are immensely dangerous. Toul Meditech has therefore developed a new mobile laminar airflow system which can be used in every operating room in addition to the existing ventilation system.
Anaesthesiology today
Ever since Boston surgeon John Collins Warren commented on the first successful ether anaesthesia at Harvard University with the now famous words, ‘Gentlemen, this is no humbug!’ anaesthesiology has developed into a separate and modern medical discipline.
Ten facts on safe surgery
"Surgical care and its safe delivery affect the lives of millions of people. About 234 million major operations are performed worldwide every year", according to the World Health Organization (WHO). To avoid - possibly fatal - complications the WHO introduced a checklist on safe surgery.
Russia's specialist wound surgeon
A meeting with Dr Valerij Mitish was difficult to arrange - every day he's at a different Moscow hospital.
Surgical disposables boom in Central and Eastern Europe
New analyses from Frost & Sullivan, Central and Eastern European Surgical Disposables Markets, finds that the market generated revenues of $35.1 million in 2007 and estimates this to nearly triple by 2014 to reach $101.5 million.
Surgeons urged to 'think twice' before giving blood transfusions
The USA's National Institutes of Health aims to review blood transfusion safety
1st class though 2nd hand
The purchasing and distribution of refurbished equipment was left to specialist retailers for years, until leading manufacturers - for reasons of quality as well as image - established themselves in this business sector. The difference is that these manufacturers not only sell used equipment but also extensively refurbished systems.
Ziehm Imaging expands partner network
Ziehm Imaging, provider of mobile X-ray based imaging systems (C-arms) and the French medical technology company Praxim announced a strategic partnership to utilize long established intraoperative 3D imaging technology for navigated surgery.
Transcending tradition
The theatre is spectacular. Its immaculate cornflower blue glass walls surround space age technology — the EndoALPHA system. Even that name suggests something that surpasses what existed before; it's `the be all and end all´.
The contribution of the anaesthesiologist
Since its early beginnings in Europe, during the polio epidemics of the 1950s, intensive care medicine has grown to become a specialty in its own right and the intensive care unit (ICU) occupies an increasingly important position in every hospital. Intensive care doctors are responsible for the management of very sick patients often with multiple and complex disease processes, and ICUs are now…
Treatment of Bladder Cancer: Radiotherapy versus Surgery
According to a study published by Cancer Research UK scientists the survival rates of bladder cancer patients treated with radiotherapy are the same as those of patients undergoing radical cystectomy. The researchers investigated the medical records of 169 patients with invasive bladder cancer that were treated in Leeds between 1996 and 2000.