The Ohio State University Medical Center has just opened an innovative surgical suite, equipped with advanced imaging technology and sophisticated medical machinery, and designed to treat a variety of brain and spinal cord injuries under one roof.

According to Dr. Louis Caragine Jr., director of endovascular neurosurgery at Ohio State's Medical Center, the novel minimally invasive endovascular and vascular suite provides the most efficient and safest environment for a patient's surgical care.

"Having the proper, sterile environment allows us to be better prepared if something unexpected occurs," says Caragine, who is also director of Ohio State's Neurological Surgery Intensive Care Unit. "A miniscule delay may result in a poor patient outcome and this new OR will assist us in expediting life-saving treatments."
Radiologists routinely perform endovascular treatments in an angiography suite within a hospital's radiology department. However, neuroendovascular procedures require examination and therapy by both radiology and neurosurgery staff. If an unforeseen technical complication arises, a patient needs to be immediately transported from the angiography suite to the operating suite for surgical intervention.

The operating suite is designed with biplane digital subtraction angiography, allowing for less radiation scatter than C-arm fluoroscopy. It offers integrated neurosurgical and radiological capabilities resulting in less movement of the patient, as well as a computer control room which monitors the "action." In addition, the room is capable of three-dimensional angiography, computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging guidance.

The robust operating suite can accommodate open aneurysm operation procedures; arterio-venous malformation repair; brain abnormalities, angioplasty or stent replacement; tumor embolization and presurgical cerebrospinal angiography.

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