AR surgery. A team at the Balgrist University Hospital in Zurich performed the first spine surgery using “holographic” navigation. Using CT scans, the developers of the software for the HoloLens 2 create customized three-dimensional images of the target organs. The glasses overlay them on parts of the patient’s body during surgery for accurate anatomical navigation. Navigation guides the surgeon through the critical stage of surgery. For example, computer graphics show the doctor the insertion points and trajectories of the fixation screws. In this case, the patient suffered from degeneration of the lower lumbar spine, significant narrowing of the spinal canal, associated severe pain and sensory disturbances in the legs. After the procedure, the symptoms disappeared and the patient is feeling well.
AR surgery is a great example of AR implementation for medicine and health safety. Thanks to AR surgeons can focus their attention on operation execution, instead of focusing on anatomical navigation. It relieves the pressure on the nervous system which leads to more accurate execution, as well as it reduced risks of wrong actions. During the operation surgeons can also use different feature of the solutions to communicate with each other, or use visual and audio prompts when it’s necessary.
We described roughly benefits of the AR surgery solution. If you interested in implementing AR and MR for medicine – click here and here.