Augmented Reality Helps Surgeons on the Battlefield
Technology is often at the intersection of life and death. Medical experts use technology to assist them in saving lives while the military has been using technology to shorten them. At the intersection of these two disciplines, military surgeons can also use advanced technology in the battlefield to save the lives of soldiers.
In this post on the Futurity.org blog, the author describes the latest advances. Research results published in the journal the Visual Computer, describe a study conducted in the context of a military medical facility with limited resources. Surgeons performed three life and limb saving procedures frequently necessary on wounded soldiers: cricothyrotomies, in which a tube is inserted into the throat to establish an airway; laparotomies, in which an incision is made in the abdomen to examine internal organs and structures in the abdomen; and fasciotomies, a limb-saving procedure that involves cutting the fascia to relieve pressure.
Researchers concluded that the Augmented Reality-assisted procedures could help inexperienced surgeons more than telementoring systems currently in use which require the attention to be focused on a screen, not the patient. The same results are believed to apply to rural regions where specialists are not available.