Until recently the only treatment of vascular disease was open surgical procedures characterized by large incisions, significant pain and morbidity, lengthy recovery and significant complication rates.
Nowadays the vast majority of vascular disease requires only percutaneous minimally invasive procedures (also called endovascular).
Their characteristics include:
1) Large incisions have been replaced by skin punctures.
2) Vascular repair is performed from within the vessel (this is why they are called endovascular) by using state of the art endovascular devices (balloons, stents, cover stents, endografts, filters, embolization materials, etc.).
3) There is no postoperative pain.
4) Only local anesthesia is required.
5) Hospital stay usually lasts one day.
6) Recovery time occurs in one or two days.
7) Possible complications are significantly reduced.
Until now percutaneous minimally invasive vascular procedures were performed either in the operating room with portable C-arms or in the angiography suite.
In the operating room there is increased safety, superior vascular access but decreased imaging capabilities. The exact opposite occurs in the angiography suite.
Currently, endovascular procedures became so sophisticated and complex that require the combined advantages of the operating room and angiography suite. For that reason hybrid operating rooms were created.
Hybrid operating room is the combination of operating room and angiography suite which enables the treatment of vascular disease in any part of the cardiovascular system.
In our clinic at Hygeia hospital we perform with utmost safety all minimally invasive and open vascular procedures. All of them are performed in the hybrid operating room which is the FIRST one in Greece and one of the most sophisticated LAST GENERATION HYBRID OPERATING ROOM worldwide.