Sunday, February 8, 2009

Apple - Science - Profiles - Great Ormond Street Hospital

A month-old baby girl lies anesthetized in an operating room at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH). Her life prospects up to this point have not been good. She suffers from a congenital condition known as atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD) — a complex hole between the right and left sides of her heart, compounded by a drastically undersized left ventricle – the chamber that pumps fresh, oxygenated blood from her lungs to the rest of her body. Without corrective surgery, she faces a shortened life and a childhood robbed of vitality.

Professor Martin Elliott and his surgical team have planned this surgery carefully on a Mac using a 3D model derived from CT scan images. They have already closed the hole, dividing the heart into its normal right and left sides. Their mission now is to enlarge her left ventricle to create normal blood flow. Elliott is working inside a heart the size of a walnut, in a ventricle less than a cubic centimeter in volume. He inserts the 3mm tip of a camera into the ventricle. Instead of the normal smooth interior, the camera's monitor display reveals multiple trabeculi - bundles of muscle - connecting its right and left sides. He cuts the bundles, and the ventricle springs open to normal size.

This is a new procedure, created for a tiny patient with a rare and unusual problem. Captured on video, archived, edited, and labeled using Apple technology — it will be shared with surgeons around the world. Many other children will benefit.

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http://www.apple.com/science/profiles/gosh/?sr=hotnews