A woman in her forties lies anesthetized on an operating table. The surgical team prepares her torso for surgery, and switches on an overhead projector. A three-dimensional image of the patient's internal organs appears on the surface of her abdomen and is aligned with her body. The image changes as Dr. Maki Sugimoto, using a wireless remote to control a Mac Pro workstation, navigates through the 3D volume to bring up the surgical target –early stage gastric cancer. Guided by the display, the team makes precise incisions to insert ports for laparoscopic surgery.
The same 3D images of the patient's anatomy appear on a 23-inch Apple Cinema Display beside the surgical table. Sugimoto uses the remote to move and rotate images for a better view of the cancerous tissue. He inserts the laparoscope into a port and navigates to the surgery site, guided by the monitor of the scope and the reference images on the Apple Cinema Display.
In many operating rooms, this cancer would have been treated with aggressive open surgery. But in this case 3D visualization has enabled efficient, minimally invasive surgery and a better outcome for the patient.
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