A leading Harrow hospital has become the first hospital in England to open a new £500,000 theatre and combine 3D technology with endoscopy to combat bowel cancer.
London North West Healthcare NHS Trust has unveiled an operating theatre which uses 2D and 3D imaging systems at St Mark’s Hospital in Watford Road, Harrow.
The theatre, supplied by Olympus Medical, is the first to combine 3D keyhole surgery with simultaneous flexible endoscopy to assist bowel cancer surgery.
The endoscopy is a long, thin, flexible tube that has a light source and a video camera and it is inserted into an organ to examine it.
Health bosses say 3D images provide surgeons with “depth of perception and precise views of the patient’s anatomy”.
All of the equipment can be controlled using a touch screen, which health chiefs say will ensure each procedure runs smoothly and will maximise the efficiency of the theatre.
Professor Robin Kennedy, consultant surgeon at London North West Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “This new form of surgery has been developed over the last five years here at St Mark’s Hospital and can now be introduced for patients.
“It means bowel operations will be smaller, safer and faster and it will reduce patients’ recovery time. This will be the way surgery will be performed in the future.”
All of the images collected by the 3D technology will then be displayed on a 3D monitor.
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