In a scene that showcases how some surgery of the future might be performed – and certainly taught – a high-definition TV screen in a University of Michigan operating room shows larger-than-life 3D images of Wendy Sarna’s brain.
Dr. B. Gregory Thompson Jr., Sarna’s neurosurgeon, carefully clips off a bulge, or aneurysm, in an artery at the back of Sarna’s skull. “The degree of detail is just so much greater in 3D,” Thompson says as images flash on a 46-inch TV screen.
Later, students will use 3D glasses to watch a video of the operation and examine tiny brain structures magnified about three times their normal size. U-M’s neurosurgery program is the first in Michigan with the 3D system, one of only 50 sites in the nation. The technology, now used in brain, spine and cataract surgery, promises to revolutionize the teaching of medicine. There also is a belief at TrueVision Systems Inc., the Santa Barbara, Calif., manufacturer of the system, and among some doctors, that the same technology Hollywood uses to make movies could improve surgical outcomes, too. The entire operation is captured by a 3D camera hooked up to a microscope Thompson is using in the surgery. A video of the procedure will be used for years to come to train University of Michigan neurosurgery students.
Elsewhere, some doctors using the 3D systems in ophthalmology, the biggest users of the technology, say that physicians trained to watch such lifelike movies may prove to be better surgeons someday because they will have a more intimate familiarity with the body’s vital structures.
“The learning curve will go through the roof,” said Dr. Robert Weinstock, a Tampa-area ophthalmologist who has been using 3D equipment in cataract procedures for several years. Weinstock’s Eye Institute of West Florida uses the 3D technology in several ways, including patient education. Three or four times a year, in a room set up like a movie theater, senior citizens contemplating cataract surgery can watch a procedure with 3D glasses performed in an operating room upstairs at the center. “It eases their anxieties and fears,” Weinstock said. Some meetings are standing-room only.
Weinstock is such a believer that he regularly uses a big 3D screen to guide him in eye surgery. It lets him operate from a seated position, wearing 3D glasses looking at images magnified to three times their normal size. By sitting, rather than standing and bending to perform as many as 30 to 40 cataract procedures a day, “I do a better job,” he said. There are different places to find help with eye surgery and many people opt for laser eye surgery to help with their eyesight. If you are interested in finding out more about laser eyes surgery you might want to check out somewhere like https://www.focusclinics.com/ for more information.
TrueVision of Santa Barbara, Calif., the manufacturer of the 3D system, has federal approval to sell the system as a visualization tool for surgery. About 50 sites, mostly teaching hospitals, now use it for ophthalmology, spine and brain operations — procedures that require very precise surgical moves. Spinal operations can be very difficult to do which is why, if you do need a spinal operation, you should visit a reputable surgery like Progressive Spine & Orthopaedics. With technology rapidly advancing, surgeons should be better equipped to carry out complex surgeries, but it’s still best to find an experienced surgeon if you do need an operation. When carrying out a surgical procedure on something as important as the spine, it’s necessary to ensure that the surgeon has a lot of experience to better your chances of a successful surgery. Many spinal surgeons specialize in different areas, which makes it even more important to ensure that the correct surgeon is used. For example, children suffering from scoliosis will want to ensure that an experienced and trusted surgeon carries out their pediatric scoliosis surgery to ease their back pain. Sometimes, 3D systems cannot replicate the experience and knowledge that a surgeon has.
The company has filed for additional federal approval for new software that adds a guidance system for surgeons in cataract and astigmatism correction procedures. The software creates little dotted lines, or a template, that show a doctor precisely where to make a small incision by overlaying 3D images on top of previous tests. Weinstock is heading a study to test the software. In his practice, a common complication of cataract surgery dropped to .7%, from 1.6% that occurred when not using the system, he said. “In cataract surgery, if you cut too far forward you damage the cornea, and if you cut too deep you will rupture the capsule and lose the cataract in the back part of the eye,” Weinstock said. The complications occur in about 1 in 100 procedures, he said.
Other doctors are taking a wait-and-see approach. “It doesn’t make anyone’s surgery better, and it doesn’t provide anything we currently cannot do,” said Dr. George Williams, a nationally renowned ophthalmologist and chief of the department at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. Ocular microscopes surgeons now use have 3D technology built into them too, he said, though those systems can’t be used by more than two doctors at a time, if the microscope is fitted with two ocular systems. The 3D system “may have some benefits in teaching, but that remains to be proven,” Williams said. Dr. Kevin Foley, professor of neurosurgery at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, likes the fact that his entire OR team can watch the 3D screen. He uses the system to perform spinal surgery that sometimes requires the positioning of a patient on an operating table in such a way that the assistant is unable to peer through the surgical oculars.
source : www.freep.com
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