Hololens Augmented Reality Lets Surgeons ‘See Through’ Limbs
There have been a high number of articles recently about the use of AR in healthcare and particularly surgery. One such article appears on the BT website which reports on the advantages of Augmented Reality in surgery.
A group from Imperial College London has conducted research involving medical procedures at St Mary’s Hospital using the Microsoft HoloLens. This involved overlaying Computerised Tomography (CT) scans onto patients’ legs so that surgeons could effectively see through the limb during reconstructive surgery.
Each of the five patients (all requiring reconstructive surgery on their legs) underwent a CT scan to map their limb structure, which was used to create 3D images of the leg. These images were run through software created specially to render them for the HoloLens.
Dr Philip Pratt, research fellow in the department of surgery and cancer and lead author of the study, is quoted to have said that they are one of the pioneering teams to successfully use the HoloLens headset in surgery. The research has shown that the technology is beneficial and practical for the medical sector, and the researchers now plan to trial it on a larger range of patients.