Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Jun 27, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Jun 29, 2018 - Aug 24, 2018
Date Accepted: Nov 13, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
See-through type 3D head mounted display based surgical microscope system for microsurgery
ABSTRACT
Background:
The surgical microscope is used primarily for microsurgeries, which are more complicated than other surgical procedures and require delicate tasks for a long time. Therefore, during these surgical procedures, surgeons experience back and neck pain. To solve this problem, new technology, such as wearable displays, are required so that surgeons can maintain comfortable postures and enjoy advanced functionality during microsurgery.
Objective:
The purpose of this study is to develop a surgical microscope system that will work with wearable devices. It would include a head mounted display (HMD) that can offer surgical images in 3D and allow a flexible and comfortable posture instead of fixed eyepieces of surgical microscope and can also provide peripheral visual field with its optical see-through function.
Methods:
We designed and fabricated a surgical microscope system that incorporates a see-through type 3D HMD, and we developed image processing software to provide better image quality. The usability of the proposed system is confirmed by preclinical examination. Seven ENT surgical specialists and eight residents performed mock surgery: axillary lymph node dissection on a rat. They alternated between looking through the eyepieces of the surgical microscope and viewing a 3D HMD screen connected to the surgical microscope. The success of the surgery was examined, and the specialists and residents were asked to grade eye fatigue on a scale of 0 (none) to 6 (severe) and posture discomfort on a scale of 1 (none) to 5 (severe). A statistical comparison was performed with a t-test, and P = 0.00083 was considered significant.
Results:
Although 3D HMD case showed a slightly better result with regard to visual discomfort (P = 0.097), the average eye fatigue was not significantly different in either case: eyepieces and 3D HMD (P = 0.79). However, when the 3D HMD was used, the average posture discomfort was lower than when the eyepieces were used, especially in neck and shoulder pain (P = 0.00083).
Conclusions:
We developed a see-through type 3D HMD-based surgical microscope system and showed through preclinical testing that the system can help reduce posture discomfort. The proposed system, with its advanced functions, could be a promising new technique for microsurgery.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.