Hospital starts a new era of hi-tech surgery
THE words ‘interventional radiology’ may sound a little sciency and geeky but, at Northampton General Hospital, advances in this discipline are about to radically transform patient care.
The new suite at the hospital, which was formally launched last week, cost £1.2 million in investment but staff there are clearly excited about what a difference the new facility will make.
Feeling a little stupid, I recently met consultant radiologist Dr David Thomas and stumbled over the question: “what exactly is interventional radiology?”
Dr Thomas explained: “Interventional radiology is essentially minimally invasive surgery. We take catheters, tubes, balloons and stents into the blood vessels and use them to open up narrowings in the blood vessels.”
In short, this sub discipline of radiology is used to treat a vast array of conditions and involves guiding tiny catheter tubes around the body to treat conditions where the disease lies.
Imaging techniques such as x-rays are used to target the therapy, and the practice - not dissimilar to “keyhole surgery” - means many procedures can be performed under local instead of general anaesthetic, with a dramatically shorter recovery time when compared to open surgery.
The ways in which it can be used are numerous, ranging from preventing blood clots in the lung to the embolisation of tumours, in other words the blocking of tumours with particles and chemotherapy agents.
The shining new suite at NGH is larger than the old facility and contains a new operating theatre, toilet facilities and four day bed units, offering patients more privacy than was previously possible.
The latest technology has also been put in place in the shape of a new Philips Allura Xper FD20 system, which allows more detailed images to be taken and makes it possible for certain treatments to be performed at the hospital for the first time.
The unit is also able to take on more ‘on call’ emergency cases, whereas before some patients in urgent need of certain procedures would have had to be sent elsewhere.
Dr Thomas explained some of the work the unit can now achieve.
He said: “An example is we had a lady come the other day bleeding from an artery in her pelvis. We threaded a catheter into the pelvis, found the bleed, and blocked it. If we hadn’t been able to do that she would have needed major surgery on her pelvis, but this took 30 minutes under local anaesthetic. With the other surgery she would have been in bed for several days.”
Interventional radiology has been available at NGH since 2005, but the new suite complete with its modern technology has opened up a realm of possibilities for patient care.
Dr Thomas said; “We now have the state-of-the-art Philips Allura which allows us to see smaller blood vessels, our previous kit was 15-years-old.
“Now we get much better pictures and can give a lower radiation dose. It also means we can do finer work, we can open up smaller blood vessels.”
The new suite also means that staff will be seeing more patients, with the renal unit and vascular services now becoming countywide.
Dr Thomas said; “As a general principle, we are probably looking at between a 25 and 50 per cent increase in patients. Some will be done at Kettering but more complex work will be done here.
“A lot of it is down to the new unit. With the new unit and day care unit we can work faster and offer more treatment.
He added: “Our waiting list has come down quite a lot, it might go up when we start seeing more patients but we have found ways to work around that. Our waiting list has dropped to two or three weeks from six to eight.”
Email to a friend
Print this page- BREAKING NEWS: Tributes paid to Niamh Curry as brave five-year-old loses battle against cancer
- BREAKING NEWS: Pensioner dies after collision at Northampton shopping centre
- Man tied to tree and beaten on Northampton Racecourse
- BREAKING NEWS: Seven-year-old boy dies following house fire in Northamptonshire
- Northampton binmen at ‘breaking point’
- Northampton binmen at ‘breaking point’
- Saints’ stadium plans get support as long as traffic issues solved
- Staff strike at Northampton school over academy plans forces closure
- Eastern European pupils helping school standards across Northampton
- Vow to crack down on anti-social behaviour across Northampton’s eastern district
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Northampton
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.