Sick Kids' 3D brain scanner brings hope to very young

SURGEONS at the city's Sick Kids hospital are set to use a cutting-edge 3D "sat nav" mapping system to help children who are too young to undergo conventional scanning.

The equipment, which arrives this month, will enable surgeons to carry out brain scans on babies and toddlers whose skulls are too soft to be fitted with the pins required for the procedure.

Bought with 220,000 raised by the Sick Kids Friends Foundation, it is the only one of its kind in Scotland and one of just two, the other being Liverpool's Alder Hey Children's Hospital, in the UK.

The Medtronic Navigation equipment, which will be transferred to the new hospital at Little France, uses image guidance technology to map the patient's brain by combining magnetic resonance imaging, computer tomography and Fluoroscopy to give 3D images of the child's head.

The position of the surgeon's instruments can then be tracked against those images during operations.

Jerard Ross, consultant neurosurgeon at the Sick Kids hospital, said: "This piece of equipment is a significant advance in neuro-surgical technology.

"It will help us manage patients, both new and old, who come to Sick Kids for help with a range of conditions, including hydrocephalus, and it will keep us at the cutting edge of paediatric neurosurgery for some time to come."

Maureen Harrison, chief executive of the Sick Kids Friends Foundation, added: "Without technology such as this, it can be difficult for surgeons to ensure, for example, the accurate positioning of a shunt in a child's brain, especially for infants.

"The Medtronic Navigation equipment will give surgeons a much clearer picture of the brain and enable them to work more precisely."The neurosurgeons at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children will combine their high level of skill and the excellent NHS facilities in the operating theatres with the fantastic pioneering image guidance provided by this Sick Kids Friends Foundation purchase to make such procedures even more effective for a wider range of patients."

The Sick Kids Friends Foundation has also launched a public appeal to raise a further 100,000 to upgrade the hospital's state-of-the-art operating theatre.

The OR1 integrated facility, which allows surgeons to carry out keyhole surgery on young children, was the only one of its kind outside the United States when it was installed 2004, but now needs to be upgraded.

Gordon MacKinlay, consultant paediatric surgeon at the hospital, said: "Keyhole surgery causes less pain than conventional surgery and recovery is considerably faster.

"The majority of major and other general surgical procedures at The Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh are performed by keyhole surgery. This is not the case in all paediatric surgical units in UK.

"This facility was funded by Sick Kids Friends Foundation and has enabled us to remain one of the leading centres in the world for this type of surgery in children.

"However, technology has advanced considerably in the last seven years and now high definition cameras and wide screen monitors are available making the image even clearer for the surgeon and increasing the safety of the operation.

"The OR1 upgrade will help us to continue to be world leaders in this field."