CIn recent years, the Arcachon hospital has continued to modernize, expand and increase its activity. New buildings, new services and new equipment. Since October 14, a Philips CT 7500 scanner, equipped with cutting-edge spectral technology, has been put into service. It was officially inaugurated on Thursday December 12 and it is generally agreed that it is “a revolution in the field of medical diagnosis within the hospital’s imaging department”.
“This scanner is the second in France. It is a major tool in the service of diagnosis, and the demonstration that the hospital center is dynamic and serves the population,” underlined the mayor of Arcachon Yves Foulon, president of the hospital’s supervisory board, during this inauguration.
The fruit of years of research
For her part, Élisabeth Calmon, the director of the hospital, spoke of a “magnificent project, a collective victory”, recalling in passing that it had been launched three years ago by her predecessor Julien Rossignol. As for MP Sophie Panonacle, she insisted on “the importance of early diagnosis, particularly in the fight against cancer”, welcoming “the improvements at Arcachon hospital” since “not all territories have the same level of quality of care”.
“It is a major tool for diagnosis, and demonstration that the hospital center is dynamic and serves the population”
What exactly does this high-performance scanner add? The head of the medical imaging department at the Arcachon hospital center, Catherine Douws, explained it in a few words. “This is a major technological advance for our hospital and the quality of care. The fruit of several years of work and research. It makes it possible to identify much smaller lesions, clots likely to cause pulmonary embolisms. And it only requires a single pass, therefore reducing radiation by three. » A progress which is of particular interest to patients with renal failure who could not benefit from medical imaging due to radiation doses.
A Tep-scan to come
Yves Foulon also recalled the upcoming arrival at the hospital of a Tep-scan (or Pet-scan in English), a device different from the spectral scanner but just as essential. To put it simply, the scanner presents a frozen image of what is happening in the body, while the PET scan looks for cellular hyperactivity. It is an essential tool for diagnostics, but also allows you to have a complete reference assessment and to see if the treatments are working and if the disease is progressing. While MRI only targets one organ, PET scan focuses on the entire body except the head.
Like the spectral scanner, the PET scan will avoid numerous return trips to Bordeaux for cancer patients, and above all limit waiting times and speed up diagnoses. There are approximately 1,500 cancer patients treated in the hospital and clinic, brought together within the Health Center. The latter totals more than 30,000 hospitalizations per year for residents of the Arcachon basin, Val de l’Eyre and Nord Landes.
The medical imaging team
The team is made up of four experienced radiologists, and 13 radiology technicians, two nurses and two nursing assistants.
