This tech uses augmented reality to give surgeons 'superpowers'
By Admin | June 22, 2021
A new medical device collaboration is giving surgeons "x-ray vision," by fusing digitally enhanced images directly into the microscope of a surgical device.
The tech, called SyncAR, is a partnership between Los Angeles-based health tech innovators Surgical Theater, and Irish medical device company Medtronic.
While surgeons typically need to look up at screens in order to access patient data or enhanced visuals -- adding time and hindering surgical flow -- this system enables access to all that information in one place.
"When you have your hands on something delicate, such as the brain, every minute and second matters. Every small movement matters," says Moty Avisar, CEO and co-founder of Surgical Theater. "If you have to pull your head away from the microscope to look at a display and then go backwards, it disturbs to continuity of the surgery."
It was designed specifically for complex neurosurgeries and includes augmented -- or digitally layered -- 3D images that are created using Surgical Theater's SyncAR technology. Each image shows a detailed visual of the specific body part that is being operated on, built using a patient's anatomical scans such as an MRI or a CT scan.
These SyncAR images are inserted directly into a Medtronic's StealthStation S8 surgical device, a navigation system that is fitted with both a microscope and a screen. The images are complete with color markings and precise 3D visuals of arteries, vessels, nerves and more.
The surgeon then uses this technology to shift back and forth between real human biological tissue and the augmented scan, which serves much like a map: highlighting crucial areas of a patient's anatomy so a surgeon can consider the most efficient path to target a problem area, such as a brain tumor, and visualize its surroundings.
From augmented reality to x-ray vision
Avisar says the technology is already showing beneficial applications. In the case of tumor removal, he says the technology "allows the surgeon to not only direct the most efficient pathway, but also to see beyond the tumor itself."
"By allowing them to see the...(More)
For more info please visit, This tech uses augmented reality to give surgeons 'superpowers', By Zahra Jamshed, CNN
