The twins were hospitalized in Rio de Janeiro. Thanks to virtual surgery, the operation was successfully carried out under the guidance of a London-based pediatric surgeon.
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This is a medical first: two three-year-old Siamese twins, born linked by the skull, were separated last June following multiple operations involving the use of virtual reality. A series of extremely complex operations since the two children shared several vital blood vessels. The twins were hospitalized in Rio de Janeiro but the operation was carried out under the supervision of a London-based pediatric surgeon.
These surgeons from different countries wore helmets and operated together in the same virtual operating room: a new but already very common technique, explains Thursday August 4 on franceinfo Philippe Menei, university professor-hospital practitioner at the CHU d’Angers and researcher at INSERM.
franceinfo: What is virtual surgery?
Philip Menei: It is a technology that uses virtual reality to simulate the patient’s anatomy very realistically. This makes it possible to carry out an operation “for forgery”. Surgeons can program all the actions prior to the intervention that is going to be performed without putting the patient at risk.
But concretely, who is in the operating room with the patient?
These are the Brazilian practitioners but virtual reality allows London surgeons to be present in the room in a virtual way. They could have actually been present with a classic television broadcast, but it doesn’t have the same feeling of presence at all. There, we have an impression of three dimensions and the fact of wearing virtual reality glasses allows you to fully immerse yourself in the operating room. Today, new techniques even allow the person immersed in the virtual universe to be able to act directly on reality. Whoever uses the virtual reality helmet then wears special gloves that allow him to transcribe his gestures via robotic arms.
Can we say that this is the future of surgery?
It is a new technique but which has already passed into the mainstream of our activities. Especially for the training of young surgeons. The possibility of simulating these interventions in an extremely realistic way allows young surgeons, whatever their specialty, to train and be much more seasoned during their first intervention.