CHICAGO -- Siemens Healthineers unveiled two new intraoperative multi-modality imaging therapy suites — nexaris Angio-MR-CT and nexaris Angio-CT — at this year’s RSNA annual meeting in Chicago.

“Our customers from the therapeutic area, like interventional radiologists and surgeons, aim to develop new procedures that are more precise, faster and enable less costly care, and we responded with the nexaris therapy suite,” Andreas Fischer, head of marketing for surgery at Siemens Healthineers, told HCB News.

The nexaris Angio-MR-CT therapy suite was designed specifically for the surgical space. For the first time, it enables combined use of intraoperative whole-body imaging with MR, the ARTIS pheno robotic angiography system and intraoperative CT in one procedure. This helps to leverage the strength of each imaging modality at any stage of surgery and without having to move the patient out of the required treatment position.
The core of nexaris Angio-MR-CT is formed by a hybrid operating room equipped with an ARTIS pheno and an integrated Maquet MAGNUS surgical table from the Swedish company Getinge. In case additional intraoperative CT is being required during a procedure, the ARTIS pheno can quickly be moved out of the way and a SOMATOM Sliding Gantry CT can be moved in from an adjacent OR on rails through a sliding door. To perform imaging, it simply moves over the patient, who is located on the surgical table and thereafter can be moved out of the room, again. If MR imaging is required during the procedure, the all-new PILOT patient transfer technology comes into play. After the Maquet MAGNUS operating table is connected with the MR-compatible Combi Dockable Table, a special transfer board on the Maquet table can be used to slide the patient onto the MR table without having to change the patient treatment position. The patient can then be moved to the MR room, where imaging is performed using a MAGNETOM MRI system.

The nexaris Angio-CT therapy suite is designed for the interventional radiology space and is comprised of a CT system, ceiling-mount Artis angiography system and integrated angiography table. The combination of those modalities is crucial for procedures such embolization and ablation to treat liver cancer.

“CT has high temporal resolution and delivers sharp images even in organs that move and angiography systems have proven value in catheter-based procedures,” said Fischer.

This therapy suite features Siemens Healthineers new instant fusion technology, which fuses and overlays the CT image with the angiography image to guide a catheter or place a needle. The sliding gantry CT system and angiography system know the exact position that the images are being taken because they use the same patient table and work on the same coordinates system.

Siemens Healthineers is also introducing the capability to switch between the modalities. In the past, in order to utilize the angiography system after the CT was used, the CT had to be moved to a certain parking position at the end of the room or in the garage.

“Imaging modalities are being brought closer to the place where the patient is treated,” said Fischer. “There is certain value in imaging the patient when they are in the treatment position and to accompany the treatment by imaging. For this reason, we believe that more and more of these imaging modalities will move into the interventional and surgical labs.”

Siemens Healthineers expects the first installations to be in spring of 2018.

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