The radiology department at the Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has recently taken delivery of its first FUJIFILM SonoSite X-Porte point-of-care ultrasound system for use in the interventional radiology suite.
Dr Alex Horton, consultant radiologist, said: “I was lucky enough to see the new X-Porte at a pre-launch event, and knew straightaway that it was particularly well suited to interventional radiology. The image quality is probably the best of any point-of-care ultrasound machine I’ve seen. It has a large, full-screen display and the resolution is comparable to many much larger instruments, but at a third of the cost. The very rapid boot-up time and good battery life are also perfect for interventional procedures, particularly as the system is so portable and robust, meaning it is always available where and when we need it.”
He added: “The X-Porte is very easy to use – it has one of the most-intuitive interfaces of any point-of-care system and the built-in electronic manuals and online help mean that virtually no training is required. It has few controls, allowing you to quickly set the gain, brightness, depth and colour Doppler very quickly, which, again, is perfect for interventional radiology use. The lack of mechanical buttons also simplifies infection control. You can place a sterile cover over the entire system and still operate the touch screen with gloved hands, then quickly and easily wipe it down between procedures. We’ve only had it a few weeks, but it is used every day and, so far, it’s been everything we hoped for.”
