TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Stormont Vail installed a new biplane fluoroscopy scanner with 3D capabilities earlier this month that allows doctors to view two images inside the body at the same time.
The technology helps guide minimally-invasive procedures where doctors send tubes through blood vessels to reach problem areas.
“In time sensitive procedures, like stroke or someone’s bleeding after a trauma, we need to get to the area and treat it quickly so this biplane allows us to see the body in multiple angles,” said Dr. Kenneth Fearn with Radiology and Nuclear Medicine.
Faster diagnosis in critical cases
The dual-angle imaging helps doctors more quickly confirm where a problem is located and what direction they need to go. In one view, an issue might appear as large pools of blood, but from another angle, doctors can see it’s an intersection of several smaller vessels.
“In instances like stroke, that is a blood clot that plugs up the blood vessel going to your brain so every single second that we spend trying to get to the clot, is millions of brain cells that are dying at that, so every single second counts in situations like that,” Fearn said.
Reduced radiation and contrast dye
Capturing two angles at once means less contrast dye, which can be hard on kidneys, and less radiation exposure for patients. The technology also reduces procedure time.
“We did a case the other day that would normally take a large dose of radiation and could take one to two hours and we completed the whole thing in 45 minutes with only a third of the radiation,” Fearn said.
The scanner also features a moveable imaging mechanism that allows doctors to scan from head to toe without moving patients. Fearn said that is especially valuable for ICU patients and other who have serious illness or injury, where additional movements cause stress and risk.
Before this installation, patients needing biplane scanners for sensitive procedures would have had to be sent to Kansas City or Wichita, further delaying treatment.
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