Vim & Vigor - Spring 2014 - Community Healthcare - (Page 52)

SPOTLIGHT ON: ST. MARY MEDICAL CENTER Internal Navigator BY MARY FETSCH New technologies help with early detection of lung cancer W hen physicians found a small lesion on the lungs of 58-year-old Walter Horton a few years ago, the small size and difﬁcult-to-reach location warranted a watch-and-wait course of action. They decided to hold off on performing a biopsy. Not all Pulmonologist Gaurav Kumar, MD lesions are cancerous, and at the time, the available technologies were invasive and carried their own set of risks. "As a longtime smoker, Mr. Horton worried about the presence of the nodule," says Gaurav Kumar, MD, a pulmonologist on staff at St. Mary Medical Center. "But it was located at the periphery of his lungs-out of reach of a traditional bronchoscopy. And needle biopsy and surgery are considered very invasive options for a lesion of that size and location." Today, thanks to new minimally invasive technologies available at St. Mary Medical Center, patients waiting to hear whether they have cancerous lesions will have answers sooner and without surgery. New electromagnetic navigation technology, called SPiNDrive®, safely guides surgeons and pulmonologists through the airways to reach and examine lesions deep in the lungs. EASIER SCREENINGS Thanks to new technology at St. Mary Medical Center, Walter Horton found out his lesion was benign, finally alleviating the anxiety he felt for years. 52 SPRING 2 014 Until now, when a lesion was found in the lung through screening, surgeons only had one of three means of obtaining a biopsy: bronchoscopy, needle biopsy through the chest, or surgery. Of those options, bronchoscopy provides the lowest risk for complications such as bleeding or a punctured lung, and allows for reduced radiation exposure. It involves using a scope with a camera, allowing the pulmonologist to see directly into the airways and conduct biopsies. However, small lesions deeper in the lung tissue are difﬁcult to biopsy by bronchoscopy and the test can be inconclusive, producing a diagnosis for only about 14 percent of those lesions (within the outer two-thirds of the chest) that are smaller than 2 centimeters in diameter. "The SPiNDrive computer-assisted procedure helps generate a 3-D road map of a patient's body, allowing us to navigate to lesions-even those located

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vim & Vigor - Spring 2014 - Community Healthcare

Vim & Vigor - Spring 2014 - Community Healthcare
Contents
Community Message
Community Briefs
A Fresh Start
A Tale of Three Hearts
Occupational Hazards
The New Rules of Play
Shopping for Two
Back to Basics
Burn, Baby, Burn
Angelina Jolie
Rock Your Health
Breaking Up with Salt
Disgusting! (or Not?)
Virtual Health
Let’s Be Social
SPOTLIGHT ON: St. Catherine Hospital
SPOTLIGHT ON: St. Mary Medical
SPOTLIGHT ON: Community Hospital
A New Frontier

Vim & Vigor - Spring 2014 - Community Healthcare