Augmented Surgery

1. What is the objective of Augmented Surgery?

The objective of the augmented surgery is to enable practitioners or surgeons to incorporate data visualization into symptomatic and treatment schemes to improve work performance effectively, safety, and cost and to improve surgical practice.

2. Why do we need Augmented Surgery?

Surgeons usually perform orthopedic surgery using a C-arm or another form of X-ray technology, which makes radiation exposure inevitable. ‘Due to the high level of toxic radiation both patient, surgeon and medical team can suffer from side effects, such as burnt soft tissue and skin, or in a worst-case scenario, it can cause cancer. Traditionally, approximately 150 X-ray photos are taken in each session, but this new technology reduces this number from 150 to about 20 X-rays. By decreasing the number of X-rays taken, it can stop later side effects.

But, it’s not just radioactivity exposure; it also improves accuracy, saves time, and increases overall performance. The most significant characteristic of this new technology is augmented reality technology. Which means, for example, when surgeons put on the glasses and look at their patient, they will be able to see inside the patient’s body and understand the skeleton structure where they are preparing to operate.

3. How does an AI-based solution work in Augmented Surgery?

Augmented reality is slowly but surely, starting the Operating Rooms in many hospitals worldwide to help the surgeons/doctors and the operating team. Almost every surgery operation requires a variety of scans before surgery. Even in difficulties, surgeons have an ultrasound or CT to help guide the procedure. Imaging can presently be performed in real-time at the point-of-care during procedures, both big and small. Visible data is always shown on a 2D flat screen. Still, the images are not exposed from the viewer’s perspective, but rather from that of the imaging device: doctors have to apply their skill and imagination to recognize and mentally project the patient’s images while they are doing procedures.

Augmented reality (AR), a set of techniques that overlap digital knowledge on the real world, has the potential to replace all of this. A surgeon can use an Augmented Reality headset such as Microsoft’s HoloLens would be able to see digital scan images and other data directly superimposed on her field of view. In such a situation, the headset might reveal a hovering echocardiogram with vital signs and data on the patient’s aneurysm’s characteristics directly above the surgical field. The specialist needn’t look away from the patient to many various displays to collect and understand it. AR’s potential ability to concurrently display imaging data and other patient information could save lives and minimize medical errors/failures. This is particularly true for methods done outside an operating room.

APPLICATIONS OF AR FOR SURGERY

• HMD (Head-Mounted Displays)can give knowledge on patients vital signs
  • 3D Projections onto the patient
  • Training and assessment

4. Complete process
   1. Data extraction
   1. Data annotation
   1. Data processing
   1. Model development
   1. Inference and deployment of the model