Precision surgery of tomorrow
Hochschulmedizin Zürich presented the new flagship project Surgent at its annual event. This is intended to enable high-precision planning and execution of operations - among other things with holographic navigation.
Imaging procedures have long been standard in surgery. However, the result is usually an image on a display that has to be interpreted by the medical staff and transferred to the patient. New virtual methods in surgery, however, can convert data from imaging procedures into a three-dimensional representation in order to make diagnoses and plan and perform operations.
The cooperation platform University Medicine Zurich has announced its new 2018 flagship project. Surgent (Surgeon Enhancing Technologies) aims to set new standards in precision surgery. Starting with spine and neurosurgery, new technologies to improve surgical capabilities will be developed and clinically tested.
The Surgent project will involve interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers from ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich and university hospitals. The project is led by Mazda Farshad, Professor and Director of Balgrist University Hospital, and Mirko Meboldt, Professor of Product Development at ETH Zurich.
Surgical landscapes
The eight research groups involved want to revolutionize the planning and execution of operations in the coming years. This includes, firstly, measuring and documenting the individual anatomy and tissue of patients using imaging. This will create interactive maps of the "landscapes" in which surgeons will later operate.
Secondly, further models and simulations will be developed to Operations optimal and patient-specific planning and to be able to predict the surgical outcome. This should make the outcome of a treatment more reliable.
The third goal of Surgent is to use augmented reality (AR) to efficiently and effectively support navigation during an operation. For this purpose, the surgeon will continuously receive visual and acoustic information during the operation - his senses are enhanced. Artificial intelligence will simultaneously help analyze the surgeon's behavior during the operation in order to provide him with the right information at the right time.
Surgery with mixed reality glasses
Already today, operations with so-called mixed reality glasses are taking place at Balgrist University Hospital as part of clinical studies. The new flagship project builds on this experience, among other things.
Mixed reality glasses allow virtual information to be fed into the surgeon's field of vision - reality and virtuality thus interact with each other. This expands the surgeon's level of information in a way that was not possible before. During surgery, for example, this should enable holographic navigation by means of a 3D simulation.
If, for example, several vertebrae have to be fixed in place during an operation, the glasses will help the physician to position the screws correctly. The glasses constantly communicate wirelessly with a navigation platform. The planned position of the screws is then projected into the surgeon's field of vision. Mixed reality, as well as 3D position tracking, allows the surgeon to more quickly locate the screw position and better position the surgical instruments during surgery. The surgeon's hand is better guided, so to speak, by expanding his sensory and intellectual capabilities.
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