AKRON, Ohio — Hasenstab Architects recently completed an integrated operating room and diagnostic services suite for use primarily in brain and spinal surgical procedures at Akron General Medical Center in Ohio. It is one of four hospitals in the nation to offer both intraoperative CT and MRI services.
“The beauty of the intraoperative surgery suites is the seamless merging of pre-procedure and real-time patient information with in-procedure information,” SAID Ed Paine, project architect for Hasenstab Architects. “This maximizes the surgeon’s ability to treat with the highest level of accuracy.”
Each of the three new operating rooms in the suite is coupled with a diagnostic imaging machine, along with an integrated surgical positioning and imaging system designed and provided by BrainLab. These systems allow the surgical team to view pre- and post-surgical images of the patient in real time while the patient remains in the surgical area. After the preliminary surgery is performed with the assistance of the diagnostic images, the patient is examined again with adjacent imaging equipment. The surgeon then has immediate access to the post-surgical images so that the procedure can be analyzed and/or extended if required.
The MRI procedure room was isolated acoustically and environmentally from the operating rooms so it can be used for outpatient services.
The operating rooms can also be used for general surgery cases when the diagnostic equipment is not employed. The placement of new MRI equipment required the construction of a multi-story addition above the existing loading dock and the installation of new air handlers to serve the new rooms.
