Cardiologists use 3D goggles to perform mitral valve procedure
Interventional cardiologists in Poland used 3D goggles to help them see inside a patient’s chest during percutaneous mitral balloon commissurotomy, a procedure to treat severe mitral stenosis.
In their case report published April 12 in the European Heart Journal, the physicians said it was the first real-time structural heart intervention in which a person was treated using a holographic, mixed-reality display of 3D echocardiography. The 3D ultrasound images are normally projected onto a two-dimensional screen, requiring operators to orient themselves by tapping medical instruments against the heart, Reuters reported.
But in this application, the goggles facilitate a 3D view of the patient’s anatomy, potentially helping interventionalists navigate better during procedures.
“3D holographic displays such as the one mentioned have the potential to allow operators to utilize this valuable information and modify techniques in real time, permitting dynamic guidance during an ongoing procedure,” Raveen Bazaz, MD, an electrophysiologist with the Heart and Vascular Institute at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, told Reuters. “The synthesis of computation and real-time imaging hold promise to permit more optimal outcomes than attainable in the past.”
Read the full story from Reuters below:
Daniel joined TriMed’s Chicago editorial team in 2017 as a Cardiovascular Business writer. He previously worked as a writer for daily newspapers in North Dakota and Indiana.