by Dr Philip Haslam, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle
Being able to assess very sick patients in intensive care or theatre quickly and without having to move them to another department of the hospital is a huge advantage for both patients and doctors.
Many patients with serious liver or kidney problems require image-guided procedures to find out exactly what is wrong with them and to treat them – an area of medicine known as interventional radiology. Traditionally this has involved taking patients to special rooms set up with state-of-the-art imaging technology where they undergo a series of tests, and if necessary minimally invasive procedures.
Portability, a great advantage
The Zonare ultrasound machines are a very useful bit of kit for interventional radiologists like myself. They provide the same quality of images as the big ‘permanent’ ultrasound machines, but in a package that is portable. So it is the best of both worlds.
It means if I need to scan a patient in intensive care or theatre urgently, I can simply pick up the machine and take it to the patient. That is a huge advantage and a very important quality, especially for very sick patients who are seriously ill.
It is particularly useful for assessing patients with a blocked kidney. When the kidney becomes blocked, for example, by a large stone in the ureter, the organ may become full of puss and need to be drained. To treat these patients, an interventional radiologist puts a needle through the patient’s back, and then guides it into the kidney to drain the puss out. This procedure has to be done with the help of ultrasound images so you can see where you are going inside the patient’s body. Without the portable Zonare machine this would mean bringing the patient down from intensive care to the interventional radiology department. However, moving such sick patients is not always easy and it is much better if we can treat them where they are – so the Zonare machines are excellent in this situation.
No interference from the ablation machine
Zonare machines are also good to help with the treatment of kidney and liver tumours. Nowadays we can treat and kill some of these tumours by inserting a needle through the skin and then blasting the tumour with high frequency alternating current – a procedure known as Radio Frequency Ablation. The needle has to be guided to the correct place in the tumour using ultrasound images or a CT scan. However, it is much quicker to use Zonare ultrasound machines and the images are very clear. Also, unlike other scanning machines, there is no interference when you turn the ablation machines on which is a quite an advantage when you are treating these tumours.
Accurate bedside Doppler scanning
Another important use is monitoring kidney or liver transplant patients. After a transplant operation, we need to monitor the arteries supplying the organ to make sure the organ is working properly. With Zonare we can do what is known as Doppler scanning – a test using ultrasound to examine the blood flow in the arteries – at the patient’s bedside. This provides very accurate results so that we can be confident we are getting the correct information about whether the organ is working well.
Greatest depth penetration for obese patients
Zonare is also useful when scanning very fat or obese patients. Doing an ultrasound scan on these patients is difficult because ultrasound uses soundwaves, and as the soundwaves go through the fat they become weaker and weaker and so the image becomes poorer. Zonare ultrasound offers very good depth penetration, which means the images tend to be better even in large patients compared with other scanning machines.
Zonare’s edge above the competitors
I have now been using Zonare ultrasound technology for about a year. What gives Zonare its edge is that it gives good ultrasound images not just of average patients but also those who are overweight or with more complex conditions. With many other ultrasound scanning machines, their ability really falls away with these more difficult patients.
As an interventional radiologist, I really notice the difference when using Zonare. It is really good kit and streets ahead of lots of other machines, and is very helpful in my work.
