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Heart surgeons operate with 3D goggles for the first time

Heart surgeons operate with 3D goggles for the first time

 

Heart surgeons in Poland used 3D goggles to help them see inside a patient’s chest for the first time in history Reuters reported.

 

They operated through opened narrowed heart valve, according to a report in the European Heart Journal.

 

We developed the method of real-time streaming of (ultrasound) data into head-mounted mixed-reality holographic display allowing for touchless control and data sharing within the cath-lab,” the research team led by Jaroslaw Kasprzak, a cardiologist at Bieganski Hospital and chair in the department of cardiology at the Medical University of Lodz writes.

 

The method was tested for the first time in a human during (a procedure to widen the mitral valve).”

 

The method

 

During that procedure, a deflated balloon is placed inside the narrowed valve and then inflated to widen the opening so blood will flow more freely, explained Dr. Omar Ali, director of the cardiac catheterization lab at Detroit Medical Center’s Heart Hospital in Michigan. Ali was not involved with the new research.

 

Although the imaging machines surgeons typically use to peer into the body collect data in three dimensions, the images are displayed on two-dimensional screens. That means surgeons doing minimally invasive procedures have no depth perception and need to periodically tap internal surfaces to get oriented.

 

3D new technology

 

The new technology takes the 3D image collected by the ultrasound machine and sends it to the 3D goggles so that the surgeon is able to actually see in 3D rather than looking at a 2D image projected on a flat screen.

 

The technique described in the new report “helps the surgeon navigate during the operation. Until now, the 3D technique has been used to teach medical students anatomy.

 

While the new report is promising, the technique will need to be studied in randomized trials, Ali said. And if it fulfills its promise, surgeons will need to learn how to use it, he added.

 

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