UF Health opens hybrid OR for trauma patients

University of Florida Health Shands Hospital’s new hybrid OR suite integrates a standard operating room with interventional radiology equipment to allow for faster assessment and treatment of trauma patients.

University of Florida Health Shands Hospital recently opened a new hybrid OR suite dedicated to trauma cases. The room integrates a standard operating room with interventional radiology equipment to allow for faster assessment and treatment of trauma patients.

“This is a highly unique resource. Very few trauma centers have a hybrid OR,” said Frederick A. Moore, M.D., a professor and chief of acute care surgery in the University of Florida College of Medicine’s department of surgery.

In the hybrid OR, the trauma team can perform interventional radiology procedures like resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta, as well as angiographic embolization for pelvic bleeding and liver and spleen injuries.

“In one room, we can care for a complicated patient with multisystem trauma who may require multiple procedures,” said R. Stephen Smith, M.D., RDMS, FACS, a professor of acute care surgery in the UF College of Medicine. “It can be risky to move a patient who is that injured or ill from one location to another — even if the rooms are very close.”

The team can also obtain radiographic images of the patient’s brain to “rule out or rule in a traumatic brain injury to more quickly route the patient to the appropriate level of care,” said Chasen Croft, M.D., an assistant professor of acute care surgery.

“We already have an excellent trauma program. We want to be at the leading edge and offer the best care to patients. Having the hybrid trauma OR is one step in that process,” Smith said.

Moore added that trauma staff will work together to “optimize the integration of multiple specialists” who treat patients in the hybrid OR. The new OR will also serve as a resource for “young trauma surgeons to learn and participate in new interventions as they emerge,” he said.

Smith and Croft said they are researching methods to study the impacts of hybrid trauma ORs on patient outcomes.

“We expect that will come in the next year or two,” Smith said.