3D-visualisation for image guided surgery

Abstract

The clinical introduction of new technologies has changed the traditional intraoperative procedures especially in the kind of visual information for the surgical team. Basically the physician has to perform complex manipulations based on the visual information of two-dimensional images (CT scans, endoscopic images,...). The use of stereoscopic visualisation systems potentially could provide an improved visual information, if they display a realistic spatial depth information. The benefit of those 3D-systems has been shown for different non-medical applications. In the studies presented in this paper, we have analysed the influence of 3D-video visualisation on the performance of surgical tasks in laboratory investigations and in clinical field studies. It could be shown, that the use of 3D-visualisation improves the surgical manipulation and reduces subjective strain. Detailed results of these investigations are presented and the potential needs of further R&D efforts are discussed in this paper.