Augmented reality in laparoscopic surgical oncology

Area of Science:

• Computer-assisted surgery
• Medical imaging
• Surgical oncology

Background:

• Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) offers patient benefits but presents challenges like reduced depth perception and limited field of view.
• Computer technology, specifically Augmented Reality (AR), can mitigate these MIS drawbacks by enhancing intra-operative visualization.
• AR integrates 3D reconstructions from medical images (US, CT, MRI) with the real surgical field.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explain the principles of Augmented Reality (AR) in surgery.
• To review existing interactive and automatic AR systems in digestive surgical oncology.
• To discuss the benefits, limitations, and future directions of AR in the operating room.

Main Methods:

• 3D visualization of anatomical structures using volume or surface rendering from medical images.
• Registration of the 3D visualization onto the actual patient, performed interactively or automatically.
• Review of current AR systems, their applications in digestive surgical oncology, and their performance.

Main Results:

• Interactive AR systems have demonstrated benefits in surgical oncology but face limitations with organ movement and instrument interaction.
• Current automatic AR systems show feasibility but require expensive equipment and lack robustness for real-time registration with organ deformation.
• Despite limitations, advancements in automatic AR systems are highly encouraging for future computer-assisted surgical oncology.

Conclusions:

• Augmented Reality (AR) has the potential to become a standard tool in computer-assisted surgical oncology.
• Further research is needed to overcome challenges in real-time registration and ensure seamless integration into clinical practice.
• Continued development of robust and automated AR systems will be crucial for advancing minimally invasive surgical techniques.