New hybrid OR at Loyola equipped with advanced fluoroscopy equipment

Loyola University Medical Center has opened a hybrid operating room that combines the imaging capabilities of a cardiac catheterization lab with the sterile environment of a conventional operating room (OR).

Cath labs are used for minimally invasive catheter procedures such as balloon angioplasties, while standard operating rooms are used for more invasive procedures such as open-heart surgery.

The hybrid OR enables physicians to do procedures that may require minimally invasive and open-surgery techniques simultaneously, said Dr. Ferdinand Leya, director of the Cardiac Catheterization Lab.

For example, the hybrid OR will be used in a clinical trial of a less-invasive technique to replace diseased aortic heart valves. The study will test the use of a catheter system to deliver and deploy a replacement aortic valve. If the doctors are unable to complete the procedure with a catheter, they will be able to convert instantly to an open-heart surgery.

The hybrid OR also will enable doctors to combine two procedures in one operation. For example, a heart patient may require open surgery to bypass a single clogged coronary artery and less-invasive balloon angioplasties to open up other clogged coronary arteries.

"Instead of doing this in two stages, we can do it all at once," said Dr. Mamdouh Bakhos, chair of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.

The hybrid OR is equipped with advanced fluoroscopy equipment, which produces X-ray images of internal organs in motion. The images are displayed on 11 monitors in the operating room.

Vascular surgeons are using the hybrid operating room for procedures such as repairs of abdominal aortic aneurysms.

"It's the best of both worlds," said Dr. Ross Milner, chief of Vascular Surgery. "We have a state-of-the-art operating room environment, along with state-of-the-art imaging."

The room also includes integrated videography. An embedded camera can capture the procedure so that it can be broadcast live on monitors in the operating room and in the control room where other doctors and students can watch.