The next generation of surgery technology has arrived: virtual reality in the operating room! A report recently published in the
Canadian Journal of Cardiology describes the successful cardiac surgery performed by doctors at the Institute of Cardiology in Warsaw, Poland.
Using the
Google Glass technology of "augmented reality" combined with a procedure called percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and an x-ray technology called coronary computed tomography angigraphy (CTA), surgeons successfully completed a difficult surgery on a 49 year-old man, implanting two stents to help block cell proliferation.
When coronary arteries become occluded (narrowed), doctors perform PCI to open them back up. Complete occlusion is difficult for surgeons to visualize and navigate. The procedure involves a small balloon attached to the end of a catheter that reinflates the occluded portion of the artery. A stent is inserted to keep the artery permanently inflated.
Prior to the enhanced imaging and 3-dimensional capabilities of connecting CTA technology with the Google Glass, the PCI procedure was difficult to complete and had unpredictable success rates. CTA technology uses x-rays to help surgeons non-invasively visualize the arteries during surgery, and the head-mounted Google Glass worn by the surgeon massively improves their accuracy when targeting the occluded artery.
"Wearable devices can improve operator comfort and procedure efficiency in interventional cardiology," lead investigator Dr. Maksymilian P. Opolski said.
However, these enhancements are far from being commonly used in cardiac surgery since the technology is so expensive and surgeons must receive ample training on how to use it.
Nevertheless, virtual reality is inevitably the future of surgical operations, and it's only a matter of time before it become useful in all realms of medicine.
Watch the following video to see how a percutaneous coronary intervention is done:
Source:
Medical News Today
