Coming soon: Virtual reality 'GPS' for neurosurgery

A select few high-performance cars currently offer GPS navigation systems that project a roadmap onto the car’s windshield as you’re driving. Now, neurosurgeons have a similar “navigation system” that’s displayed right in the oculars of the surgical microscope—and directly overlying the brain anatomy.

In combination with virtual reality imaging, the system allows surgeons to better visualize and guide surgery, as well as improve patient outcomes and safety.

Developed by Leica Microsystems, CaptiView takes images from CT, MRI, angiogram, or image-guided surgery software and “injects” the images into the eyepieces of the microscope. (Specifically, the CaptiView system uses Brainlab^® Cranial 3.1 Navigation Software in conjunction with a Leica M530 OH6 microscope.) Until now, these images were only viewable on the OR monitor. With CaptiView, as with the high-tech windshield GPS systems, surgeons never have to “take their eyes off the road.”

Joshua Bederson, MD, Professor and System Chair of Neurosurgery at Mount Sinai Health System, in New York, NY, was the first neurosurgeon to use the technology (on a patient with an aneurysm) and was closely involved in its development.

“This next-generation augmented virtual reality tool provides real-time information in ways never before realized,” Dr. Bederson said. “By integrating the navigation and simulation through the eyepieces of the CaptiView, we can project that heads-up display into the eyepieces while I’m operating.”

This technology can be used alongside the Surgical Navigation Advanced Platform (SNAP), developed by Surgical Theater, LLC. SNAP connects to the intraoperative navigation system and enhances it with virtual reality 3D navigation.

“You operate with far greater confidence and visuospatial awareness,” Dr. Bederson explained. Using the real-time VR image-guided system increases safety and improves patient outcomes—in dissection of a tumor, for example. “You can see right through the tumor to where the carotid arteries [are located],” he noted.

Leica Microsystems expects CaptiView to be available in September 2016.

Dr. Bederson owns equity in Surgical Theater, LLC.