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Lisa Chamoff, Contributing Reporter | April 04, 2022
From the April 2022 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
C-arm system and accessories manufacturers continue to prioritize radiation dose and exposure reduction while ensuring image quality remains high. They are using technology, including AI, along with new shielding products.
There also continue to be advances in 3D imaging as well as workflow improvements to decrease surgery times and improve patient outcomes.
Here’s a rundown of what’s new in the C-arm space from several companies.
ControlRad
Last November, ControlRad received an additional clearance from the FDA to expand its indication of use for Siemens Artis zee large detectors, in addition to small detectors, for the ControlRad Select, a radiation-reducing retrofit distributed by Boston Scientific.
“This additional FDA clearance for large detectors increases our market opportunity by more than five times,” said Guillaume Bailliard, chief executive officer of ControlRad. “This now allows us to offer our dramatic radiation reduction technology to the interventional radiology labs and expands our opportunity within cardiology as well, where there's a significant amount of imaging systems with large detectors.”
At the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) Annual Meeting last November, the chief of cardiovascular medicine from Beaumont Hospital in Michigan presented the results of a prospective, randomized study, which found a 57% decrease in radiation exposure to the thyroid badge of the primary cardiologist, 49% reduction in radiation dose to the secondary cardiologist’s thyroid, as well as a 35% reduction in dose area product (DAP) to the patient during procedures using the ControlRad Select.
“The unique feature of ControlRad is that everyone benefits,” Bailliard said. “Patients, physicians, circulating nurses and anyone else in interventional labs all dramatically reduce their lifetime risks associated with unnecessary radiation exposure.”
GE Healthcare
At RSNA 2021, GE Healthcare showcased its OEC 3D surgical C-arm, which performs both 2D and 3D imaging in the OR. The system was FDA cleared last year.
“It had been part of RSNA in 2020, but of course that was virtual only,” said Dan Strauch, chief growth officer of GE Healthcare's surgery business. “This was an opportunity to actually have it on the show floor and was a tremendous chance to connect with customers and really demonstrate for them what we're capable of doing.
The company is seeing interest in intraoperative 3D imaging beyond the typical areas of orthopedics, and into pulmonology, for lung biopsies, and prostate cancer treatment.
