Hybrid theatre design is a considerable art

With the percutaneous devices used in interventional radiology departments becoming ever more complex, and more and more minimally invasive procedures being undertaken in conventional operating theatres, a new ‘breed’ of ‘hybrid’ theatres has emerged, and is now a feature of many hospitals worldwide. Here Julian Grimaldi, senior business manager, Hybrid OR, for Getinge in Germany, examines some of the key considerations when designing, fitting out, and equipping such theatre spaces.

The hybrid room or hybrid operating theatre – an increasingly common phenomenon in 21st century hospitals – is a surgical room where both percutaneous and surgical procedures can take place thanks to the use of a C-arm imaging system integrated with a surgical table for complex patient positioning for hybrid procedures. The addition to a hospital of a hybrid operating room allows more innovative and efficient treatment and surgical procedures to be performed – resulting in better outcomes, shorter patient stays, and optimised workflows. 

Patient benefits include a speedier diagnosis to treatment process, access to innovative minimally invasive therapies that reduce recovery times, eventual elimination of corrective surgeries, and real-time availability of high quality imaging that helps surgeons preserve as much healthy tissue as possible. Among the benefits for hospitals are closer collaboration among specialists throughout the treatment chain, diagnostic advantages for new and innovative therapeutic techniques, the potential to enhance the hospital’s reputation, the ability to both increase patient satisfaction and boost revenues, and greater likelihood of attracting and retaining a high quality workforce.