The University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine recently opened a $750,000 minimally invasive surgical suite at the Matthew J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital, the school reported.
The Buerger Family Foundation Surgery Suite includes equipment to allow veterinarians at the hospital to perform minimally invasive surgical procedures. The suite is the first of its kind in a veterinary teaching hospital to include a comprehensive array of minimally invasive surgical procedures, including:
- Arthroscopy;
- Laparoscopy;
- Thoracoscopy;
- Interventional radiology;
- Interventional endoscopy;
- Minimally invasive fracture repair.
Minimally invasive surgical procedures allow for quicker recovery times, shorter hospital stays and less opportunity for post-surgery infection, according to the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.
Equipment in the suite includes the Karl Stroz Or1 Integration system, the Berchtold lighting and boom system, and the Covidien Electrosurgical Force Triad Unit. The integration equipment transmits information from various video and data sources and routes it to multiple locations both inside and outside the operating room.
The surgical cameras, C-Arm fluoroscope, picture archiving and communication system, Internet images and network data can be sent to any of the six displays within the suite, as well as to a display in an observation area outside the suite.
The suite’s video conference capability allows surgical images to be sent anywhere in real-time for collaboration with referring veterinarians, sharing information with colleagues on either of Penn Vet’s campuses, or for use in the classroom. Images can also be recorded as video or still images.
The school’s Shelter Animal Medicine Program will also use the Buerger Family Foundation Surgery Suite to perform minimally invasive spays and neuters of shelter animals.