Creation of a video library for education and virtual simulation of anatomical lung resection

Recently, preoperative and intraoperative simulation using three-dimensional computed tomography (CT) has attracted much attention in thoracic surgery. However, because conventional three-dimensional CT only shows static images, dynamic simulation is required for a more precise operation. We previously reported on a resection process map for pulmonary resection, which we developed to generate virtual dynamic images from preoperative patient-specific CT scans. The goal of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of the clinical use of the resection process map for anatomical lung resection.

This study included 5 lobectomies for different lobes and 4 representative segmentectomies. Dissection of the pulmonary arteries, veins and bronchi were considered key parts of each procedure. To assess the description of images obtained from the resection process map, relevant clips from the actual surgical videos were collected, retrospectively replicated and superimposed on the resection process map to explain the procedures.

In all surgical procedures, the resection process map successfully and semiautomatically generated a virtual dynamic image from the patient-specific CT data. Moreover, superimposition of the virtual images on the selected clips from the surgical videos showed no major differences.

The resection process map could generate virtual images that corresponded to the actual surgical videos and has the potential for clinical use as preoperative and intraoperative simulation.