Biplane Angiography

Photo Gallery for this article: UHN Campaign

In my talks about funding for the transplant program at Toronto General Hospital I've been bragging about our status as a world-class transplantation institution. But that's only one of many areas the University Health Network has international recognition for.

On November 10, 2004 following a University Health Network (UHN) Campaign meeting, Dr. Karel G. TerBrugge gave our group a tour of the new Biplane Angiography Suite at the Toronto Western Hospital.

Dr. TerBrugge is Chief of neuroradiology at Toronto Western. He is an interventional neuroradiologist specializing in the treatment of patients with brain vascular disorders, especially brain aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, and acute stroke. He is internationally recognized in his specialty, and a co-founder of the The Toronto Brain Vascular Malformation Study Group . He is a professor at the University of Toronto. He teaches and supervises medical students, residents and clinical fellows.

Dr. TerBrugge explained that the biplane system takes very detailed and clear X-ray pictures. By watching these images, physicians can thread extremely fine catheters through blood vessels that lead directly to problem areas of the brain. Once there they can seal off aneurysms, destroy clots, choke off the blood supply to tumors and open up clogged arteries with stents——all without surgery.

Blood vessels can be viewed from two different angles at the same time with the biplane system. The old imaging equipment gave a view of the brain in only one plane, making it difficult to navigate some arteries or enter some aneurysms or branch vessels.

This new system offers three-dimensional rotational angiography. After dye is shot into a blood vessel, the machine spins on a 180-degree axis, giving three-dimensional information about an aneurysm. See the picture on the monitor behind Dr. TerBrugge in this photo:

Dr. TerBrugge

For a panoramic view of the Biplane Angiography Suite:Angiography Suite


Now, a patient with a ruptured aneurysm can go directly to the operating room, have a diagnostic arteriorgram performed, and a decision can be made immediately on an open surgery or endovascular procedure.

The biplane systems gives the University Health Network here in Toronto a world class, state-of-the-art facility for treating interventional vascular disorders. But it does not come cheap. Dr. TerBrugge showed us one of the stents used to open clogged arteries. To me it looked like a small plastic cap such as one would find at the end of a tiny squeeze bottle. But looks are deceiving because those little stents cost $4000 each. Wow!

The more I see of the wonderful accomplishments and initiatives UHN is taking to push the envelope in achieving excellence in research and education the more motivated I am to help achieve our campaign funding goals.

For more photos go to: UHN Campaign No comments:

UHN Campaign

Photo Gallery for this article: UHN Campaign

As a Team Volunteer, Transplantation, I attended the Campaign Cabinet Meeting at Toronto Western Hospital on the evening of November 10th. Along with Tennys Hanson, President and CEO of the Toronto General & Western Hospital Foundation, I was pleased to speak on behalf of our Transplantation fund raising activities.

Tennys announced that on November 2nd a large conference room on the 11th floor of the Transplant Centre was officially named the Fujisawa Canada Conference room in recognition of their commitment of $1.4 million towards transplant research. I reported on the succes of our Birthday Ball, a gala event November 3rd which raised an estimated $140,000 in support of the Multi-Organ Transplant Program. I also noted that the draw for the raffle in support of the Transplant Fund for Excellence will be held on November 30th.

Other campaign team reports included Diabetes, Heart & Circulation/Minimally Invasive Surgery, Neural & Sensory Sciences, Breast & Gynaecological Cancer, Brain Cancer, Head & Neck Cancer, Gastrointestinal & Genitourinary Cancer & the Prostate Centre, Leukemia, Lumphoma & Myeloma and Lung Cancer.

Bryce Douglas, Campaign Chair, reported that the campaign has been very successful and we are well on our way to achieving our goal, with $344,249,883 raised to the end of September, 2004.

A highlight of the evening was a tour of the biplane angiography suites at Toronto Western Hospital. Dr. Karel G. TerBrugge conducted the fascinating and informative tour and I have covered this in a separate post.

I have published a few photos to my gallery with captions and comments for you to browse and enjoy: UHN Campaign

Merv Sheppard.

And What a Birthday Celebration it Was

Photo Gallery for this article: Birthday Ball

Last Wednesday, November 3rd, almost 600 were in attendance for the first annual Birthday Ball fund raiser to celebrate the anniversary of the opening of the Toronto General Hospital's new multi-organ transplant center. It was also a celebration of the very special birthdays of all our transplant patients; marking the anniversaries of our second chance in life.

The gala was a stunning success and moneys raised will help the Transplant Centre maintain it's status as a world model in the delivery of patient care, the education of transplant health professionals and transplant research.

The Liberty Grand Entertainment Complex in Toronto buzzed with excitement and guests included a literal "who's who" from the world of organ and tissue transplantation. During the day about 270 transplant scientists and physicians from around the world attended a medical symposium sponsored by our Transplant Centre and many were present at the Ball.

Included was Dr. Joel Cooper, who performed the very first successful lung transplant in the world on November 7, 1983 while he was director of the Lung Transplant Program at Toronto General Hospital. Dr. Cooper is now located in St. Louis, MO but his ties to Toronto are very, very strong. My number one hero Dr. Shaf Keshavjee was there and I had a chance to talk to him. He is head of the Lung Transplant Program at the hospital and he rescued me from death with my "Gift of Life" single-lung transplant April 20, 2002.

It was a very special evening for transplant recipients. There were donor families present; representatives of the Trillium Gift of Life Network, Ontario's Organ and Tissue Donation program; transplant physicians and their transplant teams, and other support staff. Patients had a chance to chat with the doctors and staff and likewise it was, as many of the staff told me, wonderful to see their patients so full of life and doing the normal things that people do.

Many people were responsible for the evening's success, including Dr. Gary Levy, Medical Director of the Multi-Organ Transplant Program; the staff at the Toronto General and Western Hospital Foundation; the Birthday Ball committee and all the volunteers, many of them organ transplant recipients. And it goes without saying that none of this would have been possible without our many sponsors, companies and individuals who gave their support.

I was able to capture a few photos and have published them to my gallery with captions and comments for you to browse and enjoy.
Birthday Ball

Merv Sheppard.
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