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V I D E O
M O N I T O R S
your surgeons and, so
far, its uptake has been
limited. The most useful 3D systems within
the OR are for laparoscopic procedures,
because the 3D rendering, by improving depth
SURGEON PREFERENCE Rendering in 3D enhances surgeon
visualization and manipulation ability.
perception, enhances
surgeon hand-eye coordination with regard to visualizing and manipulating structures. Surgeons especially seem to like 3D in conjunction
with robotics, as the robot can hold the 3D laparoscope while the surgeon manipulates other instruments. This technology also has applications in neurology and ophthalmology — letting the surgeon work
heads-up in the latter is a desired benefit.
But this isn't of much use to anyone else in the OR. If others are
watching the 3D display, they'll also need to wear 3D glasses that may
interfere with other duties (for example, if they're taking them off and
putting them on), even though that's not a concern for surgeons. More
commonly, everyone else on the scrub team will be viewing the procedure on another, standard 2D-format display.
In addition, image quality for the standard display and for video capture will suffer a bit. This is because the 3D camera is actually 2 cameras, positioned side-by-side. When those 2 images are separate, they
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