New hybrid operating suite to open at Kingston Health Sciences Centre

A new hybrid operating room suite will be opening at Kingston General Hospital on Nov. 2.

Kingston Health Sciences Centre says the $2.8-million facility is one of the most advanced operating rooms the world has to offer, and will help patients needing complex surgeries.

KHSC says it will advance minimally invasive endovascular (inside blood vessels) procedures in Kingston by combining state-of-the-art imaging technology with an operating room equipped to perform traditional surgeries.

“We are looking forward to providing the latest endovascular procedures to members of our community and not having them travel out of southeastern Ontario to get the care they need,” says Dr. Tarit Saha, the clinical lead for the project.

KHSC says one of the many benefits of this new room will be that more complex care will be delivered closer to home for KHSC patients.

“The new operating room will enable us to care for patients who we were not able to treat before and had to send to other centres,” says Dr. Ben Mussari, an interventional radiologist at KHSC.

“We now have an advanced OR in which to treat complex aortic aneurysms that involve multiple branches to other arteries.”

According to KHSC, another benefit to this new operating suite is that these types of surgeries that are minimally invasive and image-guided have proven to have patients spend less time in surgery, shorter hospital stays, faster recoveries and better outcomes.

“Historically, patients with complicated aortic aneurysms involving the entire aorta would require all-day major surgery and multi-week recovery in the intensive care unit,” says Dr. Michael Yacob, a vascular and endovascular surgeon at KHSC.

“With the introduction of advanced aortic stenting in our new hybrid OR, we can perform the same procedure in half the time, with less than one week needed for patient recovery.”

Before now, advanced imaging at KHSC was only available outside of operating rooms in the interventional radiology suites, where approximately 7,000 procedures are performed each year.

“The new hybrid OR brings specialties together to magnify the knowledge, expertise and experience of each field,” says KHSC interventional cardiologist Dr. Paul Malik.

“Patients and family members should be assured that when they come to KHSC for a procedure, it will be performed by a skilled multidisciplinary team in a state-of-the-art facility affiliated with a world-renowned university.”

KHSC hopes that this new OR will attract other health-care professionals trained in the latest technology to join their staff.