Cape Girardeau Surgical Clinic implements LOCalizers and RFID Tags

New technology makes surgery more accurate

Before, to help a surgeon locate a cancerous mass that was not palpable, a patient with breast cancer had to have a wire placed into the cancer using a needle. The needle would be taken out, leaving the wire sticking out of the breast, and the radiologist would coil up the wire, place a bandage over it and send the patient to the surgeon. The surgeon would then have to follow the route of the wire to lead them to the cancer in the patient�s breast.

This has been the method of surgery to remove breast cancer since the 1990s.

Not anymore.

Dr. Ray Silliman explains how the LOCalizer radio frequency identification system works Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018, at Cape Girardeau Surgical Clinic in Cape Girardeau.KASSI JACKSON ~ kjackson@semissourian.com

Now, using a LOCalizer and radio frequency identification (RFID) tag technology, the route taken by the surgeon during surgery can be much more accurate, less breast tissue can be removed and placement of the tag can happen before the day of the surgery.

�Currently we can place them 30 days in advance, and so I can make the patient�s day of surgery less stressful because we can have it placed weeks in advance,� says Dr. Richard Ogles, MD, radiologist and breast imaging with Cape Radiology Group.

Ogles says he hopes the FDA will soon approve the tag for indefinite placement, so placement can happen several months in advance of surgery. This, he says, will provide an �accurate localization� of a patient�s previous cancer reduced in size through chemotherapy that still needs to be removed.

The way the technology works goes like this: the LOCalizer utilizes a radio frequency identification tag approximately one centimeter in size. After the cancer has been located through an ultrasound or mammogram, the tag, which is coded with a unique identification number, is inserted into the breast using a hollow needle.

In the operating room, the surgeon uses a LOCalizer wand placed over the breast to locate the tag inside of the patient. The tag sends a signal to the wand, telling the surgeon where the tag in the cancerous mass is located and how deep it is from the skin�s surface. This allows the surgeon to be able to determine the most direct route to take, rather than following the needle inserted by the radiologist.

�Overall patient care was the driving force,� says Dr. Nicholas Boston, MD, general and breast surgeon, of why the clinic decided to implement this technology.

Cape Girardeau Surgical Clinic began implementing the technology in March; they are the first clinic in Missouri to do so. Nearby, one clinic in Nashville, Tennessee, and one in Memphis, Tennessee, are also utilizing it. The purchase of the LOCalizers and RFID tags was made possible by SoutheastHEALTH.

�This is one example of what we at Cape Surgical Clinic and the hospitals are doing to stay at the forefront of technology,� says Dr. Ray Silliman, MD, general and breast surgeon. �We�re doing everything we can to really offer top-notch, high-end technical, mainstream care that a lot of towns this size may not have opportunities to have.�

He adds, �It�s definitely a big step forward.�