Name: VR is Making Surgery Safer and Smarter
Uploaded: 2019-01-09
Duration: 5 min 22 s
Description: Neurologists are now using VR technology to better prepare for surgery.

[ MUSIC ] The advent of virtual reality recently is part of this revolution in technology that has allowed us to advance the field and make surgery much safer for patients. The work I do is very delicate and requires attention to detail, operating on the blood vessels in the brain and those leading to the brain It's some of the most challenging kind of surgery that we face, in part because of the very intricate and delicate nature of the blood vessels. And in part because the blood vessels are supplying the brain, which of course is what makes us human [ MUSIC ] One of the advantages that virtual reality provides is the ability to see and appreciate a three- dimensional view of the patient's brain anatomy and pathology. [ MUSIC ] The image that we use for the 3D virtual reality Is taken from a radiologic image. That can be either a CT scan with a CP angiogram, an MR scan, or a digital suppression angiography. So we have the ability to take the data From these three different modalities and fuse them into one single unique image exactly. And then we can look at the relationship between whatever pathology we're dealing with, an arterial venous malformation, an aneurysm, a tumor, and see its relation Both to the blood vessels and to the brain substance itself. And so for planning surgery we can actually rotate this in three dimensions. We can wear goggles like a video game. We can look around the entire brain we can see blood vessels. We can see the surrounding brain tissue, we can see the bone And so, in a sense we can simulate or rehearse the entire surgical procedure beforehand so that when we get to surgery it's not a surprise, it's as if we actually performed the surgery before. Good to see you again. Nice to see you. Good to see you. Hi, nice to see you. Last month Just before Thanksgiving I was in Spain and I woke up and realized that I had a dislocated shoulder and put together the facts and realized that I had probably had a seizure. And after visiting my primary care physician had a couple tests and they found out that I was diagnosed with an AVM, which is an Arteriovenous Malformation in the brain. So now formation is that, typically you have arteries that carry blood and oxygen rich blood. And they connect to capillaries in your brain that distribute the oxygen into the brain tissue. And sometimes some people they don't form quite right. So the high pressure blood flow from the arteries goes right into the vein and veins are typically Ment to handle high pressure blood flow. So a lot of times what can happen is they'll be scar tissue, you can get pressure, of the veins will actually break or you can have a brain hemorrhage basically is the way a lot of people How do people find out about ABMs? So you'll be coming in the morning of your surgery And then you are gonna be put to sleep obviously for the surgery. The surgery, my part will probably be about two hours. And then I'm planning on doing a quick angiogram in the operating room with you asleep, make sure we've got the whole thing out. Keith's AVM is located in his temporal lobe and it's in one of the safer areas in the brain. But it had a very high vascular flow and supply, and so what we did was to cut down the vascular supply With two sessions of what we call embolization and that will set the stage for me to be able to operate more safely. And what I will do then, is through a small incision, on the side of his head, I will take off a piece of bone, I'll magnify everything 20 times and I'll use very fine instruments to clot off the remaining vessels leading to the ABM and draining it. And actually take it out of his brain. Now he can take and show what is a tangle of veins in your brain and walk around where there's a supply and you can start to see how it's gonna do the surgery and it's nice to know that he has a map even though he knows what's in his mind, he knows that he can refer back to this at some point and see it from multiple angles. Because of these advances in computer technology and imaging, we can operate deep in the brainstem through safe trajectories, magnifying everything with the microscope 20 times, and actually take out abnormalities through an opening one to two millimeters in diameter. My vision of the future of VR in surgery would be for us to use robotic instrumentation. Initially at the same state of the patient, but ultimately, being able to operate remotely with VR and robotics. [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

VR is Making Surgery Safer and Smarter

Neurologists are now using VR technology to better prepare for surgery.