Downtown Greenville: Clear sky, mist, 35.6 °F

5:12 am
PVII CSS Express Drop-Down Menu
Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Subscribe to our RSS feed
July 2010

Medical Guide: Weird Science

Cutting-edge technology modernizes medicine at regional healthcare facilities.

Heart Health

The Impella 2.5 pump —the world's smallest heart pump—gives the highest-risk heart patients a second chance at life. This motor-containing catheter is threaded into the main pumping chamber of the heart through a small needle stick in the leg. Once inside the heart, it can pump up to 2.5 liters of blood per minute, taking strain off the heart and increasing the heart's output. Greenville Hospital System's tertiary hospital became the first in the state to offer the device last year. The Impella is a breakthrough for patients for whom open-heart surgery is not an option or those having heart attacks with extensive heart muscle damage.

 

 

 

da Vinci Surgical System

What do you get when you integrate "nuclear" imaging with computerized 3D CT scanning in the operating room? Breakthrough robotic technology that offers gynecology, urology, and cardiology patients at St. Francis Hospital (which introduced this system to Greenville) faster operating times and (best of all) faster recovery from surgical procedures.

 

The da Vinci Code

The da Vinci robotic surgery system (hand of the robot pictured at right) got its name, in part, because Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci designed the first-ever recorded robot in 1495.