The Bonnie Uytengsu and Family Surgery and Intervention Center surgical center, the newest expansion at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford in Palo Alto, California, includes six interventional treatment rooms for radiology laboratories and other service lines.
The hospital’s surgeon-in-chief, James Dunn, MD, said the new surgical center “weaves powerful new imaging technologies into the operating suites, interventional radiology (IR) rooms, cardiac catheterization labs and hybrid suites—improving real-time navigation as well as enabling the immediate evaluation of a procedure’s success, all of which serve to improve patient care,” according to a prepared statement from the hospital.
The hospital’s Cynthia Fry Gunn and John A. Gunn Imaging Center opened its doors late in 2017. With the addition of the new surgical center, the hospital has dedicated nuclear medicine, interventional radiology and surgical capabilities all under one roof. The consolidation has reduced the need for patient travel times.
“Creating the space and services specifically for children means they are spending less time under anesthesia and we are minimizing their exposure to radiation for treatments, which all translates to safer care, a better value and better experience for our patients and families,” said interim CEO, chief medical officer and pediatric general surgeon Dennis Lund, MD.
The suite is the “only of its kind” for pediatric patients in Northern California as it implements the use of a robotic imaging technology that combines imaging, surgical planning, patient data collection and intraoperative vision into one modality.
“We now have unprecedented views of patient anatomy in 3D, which will allow surgeons to perform complex surgery on previously unreachably deep tumors of the brain with less invasive approaches and more precision,” said Grant. “Safer, less invasive procedures may lead to faster recovery times and fewer complications for patients and, in some cases, may render an inoperable diagnosis operable.”
As a senior news writer for TriMed, Subrata covers cardiology, clinical innovation and healthcare business. She has a master’s degree in communication management and 12 years of experience in journalism and public relations.