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Procedure Suite Opens at St. Luke's Hospital

New Interventional Radiology Suite Offers Comfort,
Convenience to More Patients

The new $1.5 million interventional radiology suite at St. Luke's Hospital

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With renovations completed on the new interventional radiology procedure suite
at St. Luke's Hospital, more patients are receiving treatments such as angiograms and radiofrequency ablations.

The expanded 5,400-square-foot suite, located in the Radiology Department on the first floor of the hospital, has been in use since late January. It houses the treatment unit with a control room, a 10-bed patient recovery area, a nurse's station and work area, a small waiting room and a scrub area for personnel entering the procedure room.

"The new suite and recovery room space have allowed us to perform our procedures more efficiently and provide more timely patient care," says Dr. J. Mark McKinney, a Mayo Clinic interventional radiologist. "The new, state-of-the-art equipment makes possible greater accuracy and effectiveness."

That equipment includes a flat-panel detector that can capture images in any direction — up, down or sideways — without image distortion.

"It also spins the detector around the patient so we can produce cross-sectional images like CT technology," says medical physicist Richard Morin. "It's more efficient so it can produce high-quality images while using less radiation than the older systems."

Interventional radiology procedures include angiograms, angioplasty, stent placement, embolizations for liver tumors, biliary drainages, nephrostomy tubes, urethral stents, chest port placement, uterine fibroid embolization, dialysis graft interventions and radiofrequency ablations of kidney, liver and lung tumors.

High patient volume necessitated the expansion. In 2001, 5,755 patients had interventional radiology procedures. That number rose to nearly 8,300 in 2004.

To request an appointment at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, call (904) 953-0853 or complete our online appointment request form: