Can you ever think that a medical surgery could be performed without using an actual human body?

The answer is NO because we know that any doctor who is a surgeon requires a real human body to perform the surgery but nowadays we have the technology that we can perform a surgery with an artificial or we can say with a virtual human body of a patient.

By using the technology of Augmented Reality we can perform an augmented surgery on a patient. With this technology, we create virtual organs of the human body and we have collected the images of the organs from the CT scan.

What is Augmented Reality?


Augmented reality can be defined as the tool through which we can superimpose a computer-generated image (CGI) on a person's field of view using various AI techniques. Nowadays, AR is being used in several areas such as in the medical industry, sports industry, gaming industry, and many more.  

In simple words, Augmented Reality is a technology by which we can achieve an enhanced version of the actual physical world. We can virtually modify the real world using various tools supporting AR technology.

In the medical field, AR can be used to teach medical students about complex situations while dealing with the patient, it can also be used to explain the patient's condition to their relatives which can make doctors' work easier.

What is Augmented Surgery:-


Augmented surgery can be defined as a surgical tool that can be used to superimpose a computer-generated image on the surgeon's field of view. In simple words, a surgeon can perform a surgery on a virtual human body that can help him/her sharpen their skills by practicing various methods on a virtual human body.

In Augmented Surgery, it includes a headset that enables doctors to have a see-through display that superimposes the patient's internal anatomy such as nerves, organs, bones, etc. 


The image shown above is an actual image where Dr. John Hopkins is performing the first Augmented surgery on a patient using the scans and data gathered from earlier tests. This augmented surgery was performed on June 8, 2020.

This surgery which was performed by Dr. John Hopkins is a breakthrough in the field of medical science. This can help several surgeons to perform complex surgeries with a higher rate of success so that more patients can be treated well. 

Surgery performed by Dr. John Hopkins:- 


Dr. John Hopkins is a neurosurgeon specializing in treating the problems related to the nerves and the nervous system of the human body. As I stated earlier Dr. John performs the first augmented surgery on a human body in which he places six screws in a living patient's spine to fuse three vertebrae to relieve the patient's back pain. This surgery was performed on June 8, 2020.

There is another surgery that is also performed by Dr. John Hopkins which takes place two days after the first surgery in which he removed a carcinogenic tumor well known as chordoma from the spine of the patient.

There is a short video in which Dr. Hopkins is performing Augmented Surgery on youtube, the video is given below:


Future of Augmented Surgery:-


The exponential growth of technologies like Augmented Reality played a crucial role in changing the lives of surgeons in many ways. Nowadays, augmented reality is being integrated with the procedure of surgery. Now doctors use a headset with a see-through display that helps them to see the CT scans, and X-Ray scans of the patient right in front of their eyes which makes the surgery process much faster than the traditional method of surgery. 

In the coming future, many companies are developing their own headsets to integrate AR technology into their glasses. Companies like Microsoft, and Google are developing their headsets with these capabilities.  

     


The current AR uses in medical fields are:

  • Minimal Invasive Surgery
  • Training and Educating doctors
  • Digitization of Patient records
  • Cancer detection through image recognition 

I think the future of medical science is very bright and will become more bright with the introduction of technologies like AR in surgery. The very first surgery in the field of medical science was performed by the Indian physician Sushruta in around 6500 BC and that surgery was plastic surgery. 

From 6500 BC to now we have evolved so much that we are using AR in the surgery of patients. Only by this statement, you guys can understand how much medical science has modified over the years.

Thank you for reading this article until the end. I make sure that you learn something unique every time you read my article just like today.