Approaches to Dose Reduction in Surgery

In today’s clinical environment, surgery would be unimaginable without X-ray. Imaging from C-arms can offer guidance before, during, and after surgery. For example, a surgeon can check screw placement in a complicated fracture using 2D and even 3D images during an intervention. This helps to increase safety and accuracy and also prevents additional postoperative X-ray follow-up, which avoids additional medical radiation, thus reducing patient radiation dose and dose for clinical staff.

Every radiographic exam, however necessary it might be, still means exposure to medical radiation for the patient and staff. At Siemens, we work to combine excellent image quality with the lowest reasonable dose for all C-arm systems.

Cios Alpha is the first mobile C-arm to use Full View flat detector (FD) technology, which delivers outstandingly detailed and distortion-free images at a very low medical radiation dose. With Full View FD technology, you can have the maximum field of view all the time—for up to 25% more image coverage* even when rotated. You can achieve optimized dose reduction, regardless of patient size, thanks the Retina Imaging Chain with IDEAL dose reduction, which gives you excellent image quality and supports patient and personnel safety.

* Compared to today's conventional image intensifiers

Dose Reduction

Achieving clinically high-quality images while keeping the dose as low as possible can be challenging in the OR. Our unique solution: the Retina Imaging Chain with IDEAL dose reduction.

The Retina Imaging Chain with IDEAL medical dose reduction optimally transforms X-rays into outstanding images – just like the retinas in our eyes intelligently convert light into visual signals for our brains – while it simultaneously applies IDEAL dose reduction. The result: high-quality images at very low dose, in all relevant clinical applications and for patients of almost all sizes.

Retina Imaging Chain in detail:
The following five elements make up the Retina Imaging Chain:

Retina FD technology: Cios Alpha is equipped with the latest generation of flat detectors, which is characterized by a higher sensitivity and lower electronic noise level than conventional flat detectors. The result is optimized low dose performance, meaning better image quality with less patient radiation dose.

Retina Calibration: Every single pixel on the flat detector of Cios Alpha undergoes a complex temperature calibration. As a result, temperature compensation takes place in real-time during acquisition. This makes sure the system provides excellent low dose imaging at all temperatures – even when the detector is cold right after power on.

Retina Board: Specifically designed for Cios Alpha, the Retina Board continuously optimizes image quality during acquisition by eliminating all detector-related artifacts.

Retina Exam Sets: Provides a selection of optimized exam sets with predefined exposure parameters for a broad range of clinical applications. Just select your application and automatically achieve excellent image quality at very low patient radiation dose. Simple exam set customization lets you tailor it to your OR’s specific needs.

IDEAL dose reduction: The Intelligent Dose Efficiency Algorithm (IDEAL) is a smart dose management system specially designed for Cios Alpha. It continuously analyzes each and every one of the detector’s 2.2 million pixels* and constantly optimizes their dose efficiency. The result is an always optimized balance of image quality and dose as well as automatic contrast and brightness regulation.

*Options

Image Quality

Outstanding images, optimized dose

The first mobile C-arm to use Full View flat detector (FD) technology, Cios Alpha delivers outstandingly detailed and distortion-free images at very low dose. Full View FD technology enables the collimators to uniquely track the image rotation, providing the maximum field of view all the time. For up to 25% more image coverage* even when rotated. The Retina Imaging Chain with IDEAL dose reduction (Intelligent Dose Efficiency Algorithm) constantly optimizes the dose, giving you excellent image quality at very low patient radiation dose regardless of clinical application and patient size.

* Compared to today's conventional image intensifiers