The Virtual Surgeons of Syria

[Sally]

It's interesting what they can do today.


The Virtual Surgeons of Syria

A team of doctors across the world is helping the only two medical professionals left in one besieged town in Syria—via cell phone.

Doctors treat a civilian in a Syrian field hospital.Bassam Khabieh / Reuters

• AVI ASHER-SCHAPIRO
• 11:17 AM ET
• GLOBAL

Earlier this year, a Syrian American orthopedic surgeon was shopping with his two toddlers at a Walmart in Grand Rapids, Michigan, when he heard the familiar ping of a notification from WhatsApp, the encrypted messaging service: A teenager had been shot in the leg and the bullet had passed straight through his tibia. The fractured bone punctured his skin like a spear. Although it was the surgeon’s day off, he took the call—as an expert in complex bone operations, this was his specialty.

But this was no ordinary case. His patient was over 6,000 miles away, awaiting care in a makeshift medical clinic in Madaya, a town in Syria some 28 miles from Damascus. The clinic is only a 45-minute drive from Damascus Hospital, but it might as well be on the other side of the world. Madaya, a rebel-held town controlled by the Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham, has been held under siege by Hezbollah, which is fighting on behalf of the Syrian government, since last July. Hezbollah won’t let anything in or out of the town; it was a Hezbollah fighter, locals say, who shot the teenager in the leg.

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The Virtual Surgeons of Syria?

 

[aris2chat]

A laptop saved my life?

now won't that be a story to tell the grand kids?

 

[waltky]

Previewing one's own surgery through virtual reality...

Virtual Reality Allows Patients to Preview Their Own Surgery
December 01, 2017 — It wasn’t a typical headache that bothered Felicia Luna, 41. It was painful pressure “like someone was squeezing my head really tight.” The pain was so bad that Luna says she couldn’t lie down with her head on the pillow. Her primary doctor and a specialist told her to stop worrying. Then she went to Stanford Medical Center. The head of neurosurgery, Dr. Gary Steinberg, scheduled her for brain surgery. Her aneurysm was in danger of rupturing.

High-tech technique

Because of the complexity of the upcoming surgery and Luna’s curiosity, Steinberg decided to use virtual reality to perfect the surgical route. To do this, contrast dye was injected during Luna’s CT scan and angiograms, two medical scans, to highlight the width and shape of the vessels. Stanford’s Malie Collins, who works with Steinberg, builds the reconstructions in 3-D and prepares the patient-specific VR cases for Steinberg. Collins formerly worked for Surgical Theater, an Ohio startup that designs the software to transform the scans to be viewed in VR via Oculus Rift and other headsets.

Flying through the brain with VR

Collins trained Stanford’s staff on the equipment and then joined the team. She and Steinberg created the Neurological Simulation and Virtual Reality Center, the first VR clinic for spine and neurosurgery in the United States. Now Collins is applying to medical school in June, to become a neurosurgeon. Part of Collins’ job is to create a “fly though” virtual reality video for patients.

Stanford medical students and residents trace the path the neurosurgeon will take with virtual reality.​

The night before Luna’s surgery, Collins gives her a headset to wear and lets her travel through her own brain. Luna admits being “a nervous wreck” before seeing the path Steinberg would take to locate the aneurysm. She sees where he will clip off its growth so the clot can be resorbed, eliminating her pain. “Now I understand exactly what’s going to happen,” Luna says. Her husband also took a turn at the virtual reality flight. “This makes me understand it 100 percent,” Rene Luna says. “That extra understanding gives me a lot more confidence.”

VR theater ‘rehearsal’

Later that evening, a group gathers in what resembles a home theater, with darkened lighting, padded recliners and large monitors. They all wear big black goggles. Their arms are outstretched, directing the empty air around them with controls wrapped around their knuckles. This is a Stanford medical school class taught by Steinberg. Collins has loaded the 3-D reconstruction of Felicia Luna’s aneurysm and a virtual craniotomy so students can follow in virtual reality as Steinberg explains his surgery strategy.

Stanford Director of Neurosurgery Dr. Gary Steinberg joins Malie Collins for a final refresher of the location of the aneurysm before Steinberg begins the surgery. Collins is the program manager of the Stanford Neurological Simulation & Virtual Reality Center.​

Steinberg uses his controls to turn the virtual skull. He virtually “erases” a bone, glides along a vessel, and reveals his target. “That’s exactly where the aneurysm is, where that turn is,” he says. He shows where he plans to place a clip, cutting off the blood that can thin the aneurysm’s walls, causing it to rupture. The virtual procedure, which Steinberg describes as a “kind of GPS navigation with 1-2 millimeter precision,” is invaluable to him. “In a sense, it allows me to plan for surgery ahead of time and rehearse it,” he says.

In the operating room