New Fluoroscopy suite now in action at Sheffield Children’s

A life-saving fluoroscopy suite, funded by the Herd of Sheffield sculpture trail, has been unveiled at Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

The scanning equipment, which provides moving X-ray images to help diagnose a variety of life-threatening and life-limiting conditions, was funded by The Children’s Hospital Charity through funds raised at the Herd of Sheffield auction in October 2016.

The machine enables our Radiology team to diagnose and treat many more children with a wider range of problems than we are currently able to. At the moment, children needing specialist imaging of blood vessels in the brain have to be transferred to adult hospitals, but the new machine allows us to scan them here at Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

The £450,000 machine was installed at the start of June in the hospital’s Radiology Department and has already made life-changing diagnoses, including one for 12 year old Ella Sparham. Ella’s condition means her kidneys don’t flush properly, causing frequent infections, pain and discomfort. It also prevents her from enjoying many of the things her friends enjoy, like sleepovers, but after being referred to Sheffield Children’s Hospital, Ella now has a diagnosis and urology specialists can begin appropriate care.

The fluoroscopy system will also be used in emergency situations such as trauma and catastrophic bleeding. Vascular trauma injuries can lead to serious blood loss and disruption to parts of the body and the time from diagnosis to treatment is critical.

Chris Heafey, Deputy Superintendent Radiographer at Sheffield Children’s, said: “The system will give us the ability to stop the bleeding without a major operation when patients have suffered damage to their blood vessels following trauma. In addition, the new equipment will allow us to do all the diagnostic tests at a lower radiation dose with much improved image quality.”