Augmented visualization as surgical support in the treatment of tumors

Abstract

Minimally Invasive Surgery is a surgery technique that provides evident advantages for the patients, but also some difficulties for the surgeons. In medicine, the Augmented Reality technology allows surgeons to have a sort of “X-ray” vision of the patient’s body and can help them during the surgical procedures. In this paper is presented an application that could be used as support for a more accurate preoperative surgical planning and also for an image-guided surgery. The Augmented Reality can support the surgeon during the treatment of the liver tumors with the radiofrequency ablation in order to guide the needle and to have an accurate placement of the surgical instrument within the lesion. The augmented visualization can avoid as much as possible to destroy healthy cells of the liver.