Tag: google glass surgery

Surgeons employ Google Glass for blocked artery guidance

The augmented reality wearable technology was used to assist with the complex medical procedure.

Despite the fact that Google Glass has been falling out of the spotlight over the last while, the device has managed to make headlines once again as cardiologists have now used the wearable technology to assist them in completing a surgical procedure to unblock the coronary artery of a 49 year old male patient.

A custom app was created for the purposes of this procedure and the augmented reality headset displayed the 3D assistance.

The Google Glass app was created to offer the surgeons a 3 reconstruction of the artery, which they could view through the headset throughout the length of the procedure. This made it possible for the physicians to more effectively guide a catheter to the area with the clog. Using a catheter was used to send a stent or balloon into a clogged area is a common method of treating a blocked coronary artery. It is a procedure that is called a catheter-based percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). That said, there are risks involved with this type of surgery, as one of the most challenging components of the process is to image the artery.

Google Glass made it easier for the doctors to use imaging and to view it in a way that could help to guide them.

Google Glass - Image of SurgeonsComputed tomography angiography (CTA) imaging techniques were used to view the patient’s specific blockage. The augmented reality headset then used the custom mobile app to display the patient’s own unique artery and blockage within the field of vision of the physician. This way, the doctor could visualize the patient’s own coronary vessel as the catheter was used for unblocking the area. In this specific surgery, there were two drug-eluting stents that were successfully implanted into the patient.

Using this strategy with Google Glass, it means that the same CTA images become much more usable and practical for doctors while they conduct the procedure as they can view them at the same time that they are inserting the catheter in order to provide them with continual customized guidance.

Google Glass used to broadcast a live surgery

This was the first time that the augmented reality headset had been used for this purpose.

For the very first time ever, a surgeon in China used a Google Glass headset device to broadcast the full procedure of an orthopedic surgery so that it could be viewed, live, by his colleagues in other parts of Asia, as well as in Europe, on their tablets and smartphones.

The surgery was conducted by a highly known and reputable orthopedic surgeon at a hospital in China.

The surgery was conducted by an expert in the reattachment of limbs that have been severed. The doctor wore the Google Glass augmented reality device in order to be able to live-cast the complete procedure using the 500 megapixel camera of the wearable technology gadget. While this event may have been only the first of its kind, recent reports have been suggesting that this could be situation that becomes increasingly common in the future.

The hospital is currently in talks to help to expand the use of Google Glass and other forms of mobile technology.

Google Glass - Image of a surgeryTechnology news reports – such as those in the Wenwei newspaper, which is state operated – have stated the Shanghai 6th People’s Hospital is currently in discussions with app developers in order to be able to broaden the exploration of the possibility of interactions between humans and machines, on site in the hospital. Among the possibilities that could be among those being discussed is the ability to conduct surgical procedures through the help of 3D images that are displayed in augmented reality while wearing AR glasses.

The surgeon’s name is Chen Yunfeng. While he is not the first to use augmented reality glasses in the operating room, he is the first one to use them in order to transmit a live broadcast to doctors in other locations such as other continents.

The medical industry is among those that is seeing the most potential for Google Glass. There are an increasing number of reports being released as various doctors and hospitals come up with new and clever ways to use the technology in order to improve the healthcare that they are able to provide.