The Clínica Universidad de Navarra has designed and installed an image-guided surgical complex unique in Europe. The hospital has equipped three new operating rooms, equipped with a high-field MRI (3 Tesla) and two state-of-the-art Artis Zeego robotized hemodynamics and arteriography systems, capable of intravascular imaging or tomography with 3D reconstruction. All the equipment has been developed and implemented by Siemens.

With state-of-the-art imaging technology, the Clinic's surgical teams achieve maximum intraoperative precision by checking "in situ" (during the same surgical act) the result of procedure, which provides the greatest degree of safety for the patient. "They are the best equipment for performing quality control of the surgery at the same time as it is performed. They allow us to know if the surgical treatment has been as precise and effective as it should be," says Dr. Ricardo Díez Valle, a specialist in Neurosurgery and coordinator of the area of Brain Tumors at Clínica Universidad de Navarra.

Necessary investment effort

"Efforts to invest in new technology are not a whim in the hospital context," stresses the Clinic's general manager, José Andrés Gómez Cantero, director . The life of patients as the center of healthcare activity "requires the duty to take maximum care of the quality and, therefore, the safety of the treatments offered by a hospital, using the best resources available," says the general director . He therefore insisted on the need "to update medical equipment in order to offer our patients excellent therapies and diagnostic procedures".

The Clinic's uniqueness as a non-profit university hospital "allows us to reinvest the surpluses from its activity in a permanent update", recalled Gómez Cantero. This is the case of this new Intervention area , planned several years ago and which has now materialized. A state-of-the-art technology that, together with the cutting-edge training of the Clinic's professionals, "makes it possible to offer the maximum performance of its resources for the best care of its patients".

Undoubtedly, the technology that the Clinic now makes available to all its professionals and patients is a clear example of the direction in which medical imaging is moving. "At Siemens we are working to maximize the enormous potential of these techniques and we are committed to taking them beyond their traditional fields -until now, Radiology Services-. Equipment such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging provides a great added value, for example, in the surgical environment, thus making it possible to develop much more precise interventions and reduce possible complications and even the rate of re-interventions," points out Alberto Martínez, director of Diagnostic Imaging and Advanced Therapies at Siemens Healthcare. 

design of the new facilities

One of the three new operating rooms is located in front of conference room of the recently inaugurated 3 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which replaces the previous equipment of the same power that the Clinic had been using since 2006. The 3 Tesla MRI is the most powerful MRI currently used for the imaging study of the human body. 

Thus, the new MRI is located within the new surgical area with direct and immediate access of the patient undergoing surgery to the MRI table. A transfer that will be performed mainly in brain tumor interventions to check, during the surgery itself, the accuracy of the removal.

Next to it, two more hybrid operating rooms have been opened. The equipment acquired is state-of-the-art for angiography development (diagnostic imaging study of the inside of blood vessels) based on robotic technology. It incorporates a flat detector and an X-ray tube in a mobile C-arm, installed on a 6-axis robot, which makes it possible to reach any position to obtain the best image of each patient and procedure.

New area of Intervention in figures

Surface area: The 3 new operating rooms and the 3 Tesla Magnetic Resonance conference room , together with the rest of the new facilities, occupy a surface area of 464 m2.

Healthcare team: 7 specialist surgeons and 12 specialized nursing professionals. Depending on the surgery, they may work in the hybrid rooms from a single specialist to several simultaneously.

Main specialties benefited: Neurosurgery for testing with 3 Tesla MRI and Hemodynamics, Vascular Radiology, Vascular Surgery and Cardiac Surgery in the hybrid rooms.

No. of MRIs in the Clinic: 3, one of 3 Tesla and 2 of 1.5 Tesla.

Location: The new surgical complex is located next to the rest of the Clinic's operating rooms, which with the new facilities have grown from 15 to a total of 18 operating rooms.

project and works: The project of the new operating rooms began to take shape in 2007. It was in 2015 when the works began and have been completed in the deadline of one year.

Investment: The investment of the new surgical area amounted to 3 million euros.