Successfully and safely treating patients is top priority at Cincinnati Children’s. Collaboration is key. Interventional radiologists (IR) and surgeons teamed up 5 years ago to design, build, and staff a hybrid operating room (OR) equipped with the imaging and navigational technologies of an interventional Radiology suite as well as the space, lighting, and sterile requirements of an operating room. In this hybrid OR, interventional radiologists and surgeons work side by side, sharing expertise and technologies to develop and improve the way we treat children. The hybrid OR environment has allowed multiple specialties to come together combining skills and techniques to provide superior treatment for complex diseases.
IR collaborations with other disciplines extend beyond traditional surgical subspecialties. Interventional radiologists have also teamed up with proceduralists such as interventional pulmonologists and interventional gastroenterologists. Specifically, with the pulmonologists, they have introduced imaging and navigational technologies of the hybrid OR to enhance trans-bronchial lung biopsy and extend the capabilities of bronchial dilation of narrowed airways. The IR and Pulmonology teams worked together in the Interventional Radiology Translational Research and Simulation Lab (IR-TRSL) to develop and practice these novel techniques and have taken what they have learned directly to patients in the hybrid OR.
Meet Ja’ir, a seventh grader, who developed a persistent respiratory illness which narrowed several of his bronchial airways making him very sick, requiring multiple hospitalizations. Drawing from prior collaborations, the Pulmonology and IR teams developed a novel technique to successfully treat these narrowed airways in the hybrid OR, allowing Ja’ir to return home to his life as a normal kid. For details about this success story please see Patient Stories | Jair and Hybrid OR.
These collaborations with other departments have allowed us to make an imprint on many children and improve and save lives. Now, surgical and imaging specialists can work alongside one another in the hybrid OR bringing together strengths, sharing perspectives, and providing new ways to treat patients. Dr. Raouf Amin, professor and division director of Pulmonology, believes that “these high-level skills and collaborations that lead to great outcomes are what differentiates us from the rest.”
Amanda Wallingford, Program Manager, author; Glenn Miñano, BFA, editor; Meredith Towbin, copy editor
