Dive Brief:
- Surgeons with Memorial Hermann Medical Center and the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston announced the first sinus surgery in the U.S. using augmented reality technology.
- The minimally invasive procedure used 3D mapping and imagery to guide the surgeon’s endoscopic view of the surgical area, much like a GPS road map in a car.
- The March 2 surgery was performed using Stryker’s Scopis Target Guided Surgery (TGS) technology.
Dive Insight:
Tools like the one used in Houston can help to prevent complications and improve outcomes by giving doctors more information to guide them through a procedure.
The TGS system allowed surgeons to treat the patient’s recurrent chronic rhinosinusitis, as well as a lesion that was obstructing part of the sinus.
“This was a complicated case,” Martin Citardi, chair of the department of otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgery in the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth and the surgeon who performed the surgery, said in a press release. "By using this technology, we were able to plan a pathway to drain that blocked frontal sinus and avoid the need for a more extensive procedure.”
Similar work with 3D-printed models is enabling physicians to study and practice on exact replicas of patients’ organs before they go into the operating room — leading to shorter surgeries, reduced use of anesthesia and fewer complications.