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Surgical advances bolster hospital

Prague now one of three cities worldwide to own a high-caliber MRI

By James Scanlon
For The Prague Post
March 19th, 2008 issue

When President Václav Klaus and Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek recently opened a new operating theater at the Central Military Hospital (ÚVN), it marked a milestone in medical advancement in this country.
Situated in the newly renovated Pavillion C section of the hospital, the operating theater, where a range of diagnostic and surgical procedures can be performed, includes a new nuclear magnetic resonance imaging machine, or MRI. According to Dr. Vladimír Beneš, head of neurology at ÚVN, the machine, a Tesla 3 MRI, is one of only three of its caliber in the world — the others being in Arizona and Belgium.
At a cost of 300 million Kč ($4.9 billion), financed mainly by the Defense and Health ministries, the MRI will mostly be used in the detection of neurological disorders, such as brain tumors and subarachnoidal bleeding.
What makes this particular MRI so different is that images can be made in much greater detail. It can also be connected by a track with the neuro-surgery operating room, so patients can be moved during operations, allowing quick decisions about particular procedures to be made.
“You can send a patient to the MRI during an operation … and bring the patient right back to the operating table,” said hospital director, Dr. Štefan Brunclík. “With this MRI we can see exactly where the centers are for speech, movement and other things, so we try to save the patients by knowing which areas to avoid. With this MRI, we are better able to fulfill the [ultimate goal] of an operation, so there is much less risk of needing any follow-up surgery.”
Led by a former head of neurology, Dr. Zdeněk Kunc, ÚVN started making pioneering advances in the field of neuro-surgery as far back as 1959, attracting many experts in the field to work at the hospital. The completion of the new operating theater, a project that took three years, follows in that tradition, but most importantly maintains the standards set by Joint Commission International (JCI), a not-for-profit organization providing accreditation for healthcare facilities worldwide.
“In 2004, we became the first international accredited hospital in the Czech Republic and in Central and Eastern Europe,” said Brunclík. Every three years, he said, “the commission comes here for a week to see if we are providing safe and high-quality care for people. You have to meet more than 300 international standards, and it’s very tough.”
At present, 50 percent of all neuro-surgery in the Czech Republic (about 300 operations a year) take place at ÚVN, which is the country’s leading hospital in the field. Patients come from all over the country, as well as from Slovakia, Poland and Austria. The new technology will increase capacity further with at least two operations carried out daily.
Although the MRI has been working since November in a limited capacity, the machine will start to realize its full potential by being actively used during operations at the end of March, according to Brunclík.
Klaus, who has been a patient himself at ÚVN, said at the official opening that he was pleased with the result of the three-year project and that “the new unit will not only be used for military personnel, but by all people.”

James Scanlon can be reached at news@praguepost.com


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