Adult cardiac & structural heart: How often does VR change the surgical plan?

“Overall, senior physicians reported that XR influenced their surgical decisions more, suggesting that the utility of XR varies with physician experience and patient age.”

“VR models modified the implant strategy in 5 cases (45.4% of the cases).”

5 cases (45.4%)

“a research group of pediatric cardiac surgeons reported increased confidence when planning and performing surgeries in two-thirds of cases and improvements in the surgical strategy in 60% of cases [38].”

60% of cases

“However, because routine empirical ablation of the left PV carina is not part of our standard strategy, this finding did not lead to a predefined modification of the initial ablation plan.”

“The incision site marking made using HoloLens® 2 differed by one intercostal space from the marking made using a conventional surgeon's mental reconstructed image from the patient's preoperative imaging and was found to be a more appropriate site of entry”

“In Patient 1, virtual reality simulation revealed that, according to the distance and angulation from the annulus, the ideal puncture site was the second intercostal space.”

“Processed images and virtual reality showed intense adherences of the leads to the veins, right ventricle, and right atrium endocardium and between them that preclude a difficult extraction and required a carefully planning and sometimes a different technical approach.”

“In the cases presented, the final approach decided for each patient after 3D-based planning was improved when compared to the intention to treat recorded before 3D-based planning.”

“Basing on these analyses transcatheter treatment was preferred to open surgery.”

“In 33% of cases (two out of six), the preoperative decision was adjusted due to the 3D VR-based evaluation of the anatomy.”

33%

“The surgical strategy was adjusted in 11.8% of the cases due to the 3-dimensional virtual reality-based anatomy evaluation.”

11.8%

“Due to better preoperative planning in VR, the operation plan was modified and thoracoscopic port placement locations were changed according to the insights provided by VR-guided planning.”