They are often shared by different surgical departments, such as vascular and spine. Hybrid O.R.s generally focus on minimally invasive and vascular surgery. With more and more complex procedures taking place, intraoperative imaging is certainly the future of surgery. One further understanding of hybrid O.R.s is that they are multi-purpose rooms that are fitted to serve different surgical disciplines. Mobile configurations offer different advantages, such as the flexibility to use imaging in multiple operating rooms, as well as generally lower costs, but may not provide the higher image quality a fixed imaging system could offer. In O.R.s with mobile systems, the patient remains and the imaging system is brought to them. In two or three room configurations, the patient must be transported to an adjacent room for scanning, increasing the risk of inaccuracy through possible movement of the reference system. One-room fixed O.R.s offer maximum integration with a high-end MR scanner, allowing the patient to stay in the room, still anesthetized, during the scan. Depending on the design of operating rooms in hospitals as well as their resources and needs, fixed or mobile hybrid operating rooms may be built. Bringing imaging into or adjacent to the surgical space means that the patient doesn’t have to be moved during surgery, reducing risk and inconvenience². Hybrid operating room requirements are usually based around imaging, like CT, MR, C-arm or other types of imaging, being brought into surgery. In general, hybrid, integrated or digital operating rooms all share the common goal of improving safety to positively impact patient outcomes and simplifying workflows for the surgeon and surgical team. While they may sound similar, the differences lie in the way the technology and data work together. With the addition of operating room integration systems to address these issues, a hospital can opt for what are sometimes interchangeably referred to as hybrid, integrated, or digital O.R. Cables and cords lie everywhere on the floor, making it easier to trip, pull out an essential cord during surgery or damage the equipment.¹ A nurse works with the equipment to adjust each device as required by the surgeon. Individual devices are pulled in or pushed back as needed.
Operating room machines and equipment are arranged around the room. Data is available either on paper or digitally on different devices that don’t talk to each other. First, before surgical procedure even begins, preoperative data has to be provided for each case and patient. into a well-oiled digital machine.īefore we can understand the meaning of each hybrid, integrated and digital O.R., we need to understand the basic operating room setup conventional, non-integrated operating room. That’s why we’ve put together the below to define operating room integration terms, describe the types of operating rooms and demystify the process of turning your analog O.R. integration” may mean something completely different in another country or even at the hospital down the street. When tasked with upgrading or even creating an integrated operating room environment, the sheer volume of buzzwords can be frankly overwhelming. It seems that nowadays there are hundreds of buzz words to describe digital operating room integration but very few solid answers about what they all mean.