TITLE:
Imaging for Minimally Invasive Surgery
AUTHORS:
Jan Gunnar Skogås, Hans Olav Myhre, Asbjørn Ødegård, Gabriel Kiss
KEYWORDS:
Minimally Invasive Surgery, Medical Imaging and Visualization, Operating Room of the Future
JOURNAL NAME:
Surgical Science,
Vol.7 No.8,
August
11,
2016
ABSTRACT: The successful outcome of any minimally invasive procedure is highly
dependent on the imaging chain, as the medical team has to rely on indirect
visualization of the surgical field during the entire procedure. During the
last decade, the quality of the images obtainable pre- and intraoperatively has
evolved significantly. In addition to the introduction of intra-operative image
acquisition techniques such as ultrasound, X-ray, CT or MR, optical imaging
technology as well as the corresponding processing units have undergone a rapid
development. The article will review the activity related to minimally invasive
procedures at the Operating Rooms of the Future (FOR) at St. Olavs Hospital,
University Hospital of Trondheim, Norway. The imaging related demands of several
surgical fields are introduced and the evolution of the imaging and visualization
techniques at FOR will be presented.
Subsequently, ongoing research projects in a dedicated visualization laboratory
will be discussed and the advantages of updating the imaging equipment
continuously in order to keep up with the latest developments in the field will
be presented. It will be shown that the quality
of the image acquisition and display can be significantly improved when compared
to today’s standard. In addition to
increasing the surgeon’s confidence, better imaging will lead to increased
patient safety as well as more efficient interventions.