New technology: breakthrough PORTABLE CT Scanner now at children's
A technician places a child's head in the CereTom CT scanner while in the operating room.
Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland is the first pediatric hospital on the West Coast to have and use the portable CereTom CT scanner. That means patients at Children’s Hospital no longer have to be moved out of the intensive care unit or operating room to get a CT scan.
“Children’s is committed to the latest technology that benefits clinical care,” said Peter Sun, MD, Children’s Hospital’s Neurosurgery medical director. “The portable CereTom scanner brings the CT scanner to the patient in the OR during surgery, where we can get a clear and immediate image of surgical results. It also brings the scanner to the ICU, eliminating the need to transport some critically ill patients to the CT scanner in Diagnostic Imaging.”
Mounted on wheels, and able to pass through standard doorways, the unit can easily be moved to where it’s needed, primarily intensive care units and operating rooms.
Diagnostic Imaging technologists will primarily use the new scanner to examine children with serious head or neck conditions. Each year, Children’s treats nearly 300 children with serious head injuries and performs more than 350 neurosurgical procedures that could require an immediate CT scan.
This state-of-the-art technology, developed by Massachusetts-based NeuroLogica Corporation, will also integrate with Children’s Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS). PACS allows physicians at Children’s to view all diagnostic-imaging exams, including CereTom images, on any PACS-capable computer in the hospital.
The CereTom is a wireless-capable, multi-slice system that’s able to generate up to 8 slices per revolution.
During operation, images are sent wirelessly to a portable workstation for viewing. The workstation resembles a large laptop computer with an accessory keyboard and mouse.
Pediatric radiologists at Children’s Hospital have a long-standing interest in radiation safety, and will use their expertise to develop appropriate pediatric techniques for the CereTom, which till now, has been used mostly with adults.
Although the machine was developed specifically for CT scanning of the head, in selected cases it may also be used to examine extremities or to do full-body scans of small infants in emergency situations.
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