The precision of paediatric fluoroscopy examinations at Leeds Children’s Hospital, one of the UK’s largest specialist hospitals for children from birth to young adults, has been enhanced by the installation of a new multi-directional C-arm from Canon Medical Systems UK.
The Ultimax-i replaced an end-of-life system from a different vendor and has delivered upgraded and diverse functionality for a range of paediatric examinations.
Emily Keyte, Radiology Team Manager for Paediatric Radiology at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, commented: “The Ultimax-i is a valuable new addition to our range of diagnostic imaging tools serving patient referrals from across Yorkshire. It is predominantly used for paediatric fluoroscopy examinations which include contrast swallows, micturating cystograms and non-GA paediatric interventional examinations. Its light-beam diaphragm functionality is key for us, ensuring precision in centring and collimation for our paediatric patients. The new ability to do ‘Fluro Loops’, allows us to review and store dynamic fluoroscopy sequences directly through PACS to support regional videofluoroscopy services.”
The virtual collimation on the Ultimax-i provides optimum image quality and dose limitation. It comes as part of the DoseRite suite of dose management technologies designed to minimise patient X-ray exposure at the same time as maintaining optimum image quality. The large flat panel detector generates 4 field-of-view levels, fine pixel pitch and high signal-to-noise ratio ensuring low-dose patient coverage and high-resolution imaging for improved visualisation.
Emily Keyte continued: “In addition to refreshing our fluoroscopy and radiography capabilities with the Ultimax-i, Canon Medical worked in partnership with our wider team on the room re-modelling. This included the introduction of comforting sensory lights to provide a calm, ambient environment for the examination of patients of all ages. Furthermore, the training provided by Canon Medical on the new system was great – it was easy to understand and is an intuitive system to use.”
Ruth Rowe, Account Manager at Canon Medical Systems UK added: “It is really pleasing to hear that the Leeds Children’s Hospital team has transitioned easily to Canon Medical having worked with a different system for many years. It is our aim to deliver innovative new functionality smoothly and instantly to benefit patients receiving treatment, and for the staff operating the systems. Our proven mix of in-person apps training and online knowledge accessed through the Medical Imaging Academy is part of this successful handover process.”
