Cardiothoracic centre installs point-of-care ultrasound

Published: 3-May-2012

UK flagship hospital uses new technology in intensive care unit

Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire has procured a new point-of-care ultrasound system for its cardiac intensive care centre.

The UK’s largest specialist cardiothoracic hospital, and the country’s main heart and lung transplant centre, the facility will be using SonoSite’s M-Turbo devices to improve the quality of care for patients.

Dr Kamen Valchanov, consultant anaesthetist, said: “Papworth is a big cardiac centre with a busy intensive care unit. As our use of ultrasound increased, we found we needed additional equipment and we recently purchased an M-Turbo. We will mainly use the system in the intensive care unit for the diagnosis of cardiac and thoracic pathology, and for performing ultrasound-guided procedures. For the majority of the time the M-Turbo is used for venous access procedures, but we are using it more and more for nerve blocks in the operating theatres and the pain clinic.”

Commenting on the expanding use of ultrasound technology, he added: “Ultrasound has become important in pretty much all areas of medicine, and there are many situations where portable ultrasound systems are considered essential.

“Our old system was only good enough to allow us to perform vascular access procedures, but the M-¬Turbo has much better resolution, allowing us to do much more. It gives us the capability to export and store images, which is important, and is very intuitive, requiring minimal training.”

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