World first: Amsterdam UMC surgeon performs brain surgery using "mixed reality" hologram
Last week, a surgeon at Amsterdam University Medical Center performed the world’s first brain surgery using “mixed reality” glasses that projected a hologram of the patient’s brain onto their head. Neurosurgeon Maarten Bot used this new technique to successfully insert a drain into a ventricle of the patient’s brain. The technology will now be used for this type of surgery at the Amsterdam hospital to test its efficacy, Amsterdam UMC announced.
Previously, neurosurgeons used a kind of navigation system to determine their location in the ventricles of the brain. But as consulting this navigation system during surgery requires the surgeon to look away from what they are doing, it was often impractical.
With the new mixed reality HoloLens glasses, surgeons can now view 3D images of the brain projected as a hologram onto the patient’s head during surgery.
Neurosurgeon Bot described it as a car’s navigation system. “The current method is a bit like seeing the route in advance, but not being able to see it while driving. With the hologram, you can see where you are and where you need to go while driving, without taking your eyes off the road.”
Mixed reality will now be used as standard practice at Amsterdam UMC to insert a drain into the ventricles of the brain, a procedure performed on hundreds of patients annually. In collaboration with UMC Utrecht, the Amsterdam hospital is performing a clinical study to see if the technology leads to fewer mistakes.
“Neurosurgeons perform this procedure so often that they’re very good at it. Yet, in about 2 out of 10 cases, the wrong incision is made,” Bot said. “The surgery then has to be repeated, which is difficult for the patient.” The hope is that the new technique makes it easier to make the incision in the right place the first time.
