Laparoscopic Surgery: Are Multiple Viewing Perspectives Better than one?

Abstract

Imaging systems are used increasingly in surgical procedures such as laparoscopy. Depth perception is degraded compared with open surgery because the image provided by a laparoscopic camera is two-dimensional and represents a single viewing perspective. One way to compensate for this loss of depth information is with multiple cameras, each providing a different perspective. We measured performance of a pick-and-place task when observers viewed the task environment with three cameras concurrently (top, front, side views) or with one camera. Performance was slower with camera viewing compared with direct viewing and slowest with the side view. Although concurrent presentation of three camera views did not improve performance, observers looked almost exclusively at one of these views (top). Future research should determine whether observers can be trained to use depth information provided by multiple cameras. It is important to determine how to configure imaging systems so that surgical procedures can be optimized.