Holograms - A Game-Changer For Heart Surgery
NUHCS successfully conducted Singapore’s first holography-guided heart surgery
PULSE Issue 39 | June 2022
The Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery (CTVS), National University Heart Centre, Singapore (NUHCS) has successfully conducted Singapore’s first holography-guided heart surgery using Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 – a pair of mixed reality smart glasses through which surgeons can view a projected three-dimensional (3D) hologram of the patient’s heart derived from the patient’s Computerised Tomography (CT) scans. Holographic devices give doctors a different perspective of the patient’s anatomy with views from different angles. In cases where patients possess a unique anatomy, holograms can empower and enhance the surgeon’s experience by providing better and clearer visualisation of the body before the complex surgery.
The device further allows the surgeon to manipulate images via hand gestures to move, resize and rotate the visual or even to superimpose the hologram onto the patient’s chest during surgery, allowing for better understanding of the challenges before proceeding with the operation. Doctors could also potentially use the device to educate and better describe medical conditions to their patients, by giving them a visual of their anatomy and walking them through the recommended procedure.
The technology allows us to know the exact location and which angle to make the incision and cut the chest during the operation, as well as to provide a guide during the initial part of the surgery on wether the procedure is going to be a simple or challenging one,
A/Prof Theodoros Kofidis
Head and Senior Consultant
Department of CTVS, NUHCS
A/Prof Theodoros Kofidis, Head and Senior Consultant, Department of CTVS, NUHCS, Mr Ng Kian Wei, Data Scientist, National University Health System (NUHS), Dr Illas Skaltsiotis, Clinical Fellow, NUHCS, Dr Chang Guohao, Consultant, Department of CTVS, NUHCS and Dr Gao Yujia, Associate Consultant, National University Hospital (NUH) formed the team that conducted the first holography-guided heart surgery, which was also the world’s first holography-guided minimally invasive adult heart operation, in Oct 2021.
The first patient was a 75-year-old man diagnosed with advanced aortic valve leakage, a condition where the heart’s aortic valve does not close tightly, resulting in a backflow of blood. With the patient’s heart failing quickly due to dilation, an immediate valve replacement was crucial. Using HoloLens 2, A/Prof Kofidis was able to project a hologram of the patient’s heart onto his chest during the surgery. This assisted A/Prof Kofidis in placing the incisions exactly in the right areas through the space between the ribs, and also enabled him to accurately evaluate how deep the cuts needed to be. Since then, the team has conducted numerous other successful operations which have been described and published in peer-reviewed journals, and also recently presented at the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery conference in Jun 2022.
