Advanced Technologies

Virtual Scalpel Improves Surgical Outcomes

A "SOFTWARE SCALPEL," COMBINED WITH clear, accurate, three-dimensional (3-D) images of the human head, is helping doctors practice reconstructive surgery and visualize the outcome more accurately. Using the new Virtual Surgery Cutting Tool software, a physician wearing 3-D glasses can see an image of a patient's head from all angles on a computer monitor or on the surface of a large "immersive virtual reality workbench." Virtual reality is a computer-created environment that simulates real-life situations.

A surgeon uses a computer mouse to mark the incision location, asks the computer to "cut" bone and gets an image of what the result will be in a real operation. The doctor can then remove the simulated piece of bone or can place it at a new angle or in a new position.

"Because some patients have severe injury to the head or diseases such as cancer, there are times when physicians must rebuild a person's head or face," said Dr. Muriel Ross of NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. Ross is director of the Ames Center for Bioinformatics, which uses computer technology to improve medical practices. Additions to the scalpel software would allow doctors to "snap" a face back onto the 3-D image of the skull after a simulated operation, she said, so the doctor and patient can get a better idea of how the face will look after the actual surgery.

In the technique, a series of computed tomography (CT) scans are combined to make the 3-D image of any part of the body, using Reconstruction of Serial Sections (ROSS) software previously developed by researchers at the Ames Center for Bioinformatics. The team also combined features of the ROSS software and the CT scan version to reconstruct a breast tumor from magnetic resonance images. The team wants to work with both mastectomy patients requiring breast reconstruction and children needing reconstructive surgery to correct head and face deformities.

Eventually, software systems could be used in other medical specialties or surgical procedures. The Ames bioinformatics team is working on a variety of virtual reality computer tools to aid in complex reconstructive surgery and other procedures.

The NASA Center for Bioinformatics at Ames is part of a larger national Biocomputation Center established by NASA and Stanford University, Palo Alto, California. "The new center is a national resource to further the use of virtual reality in medicine," Ross said.

Surgeons can use the big-screen workbench, special gloves, computer tracking wands and other devices to manipulate 3-D computer images of patients. A digital library of computerized "virtual patients" will be created that physicians can use to share information about uncommon procedures, according to researchers. Virtual reality is expected to continue allowing surgeons to rehearse numerous complex procedures before operations and to eventually be used as a powerful teaching tool for medical students.

For more information, contact Dr. Muriel Ross at Ames Research Center.
Call: 650/604-4804, Fax: 650/604-3954, E-mail: mross@mail.arc.nasa.gov
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