"It takes the
important informa-
tion that you want
and puts it right
there on the screen
where you're operat-
ing," says Marc A.
Tewfik, MDCM,
MSc, FRCSC, an
associate professor
of
otolaryngology/head
and neck surgery at McGill University Health Centre, in Montreal,
Canada. "You can keep operating and see all the important structures
actually in the image on the screen, fully integrated into the camera
view. It's really quite ingenious."
The surgeon still needs to pick out and highlight the critical struc-
tures ahead of time, but the technology is so sophisticated that it
promises to open the discipline to less-experienced practitioners.
"Traditionally this kind of surgery has been left to people who are
very specialized," says Dr. Tewfik. "But with these improvements,
there's no reason why general ENT surgeons can't do this kind of sur-
gery without being extremely specialized."
The system even lets surgeons set alarms that will warn them when,
say, an instrument gets within 2 or 3 mm of the optic nerve.
Surgery of the frontal sinus has long been considered the most
advanced kind of surgery of the sinuses, since it involves a very nar-
row area between the eyes and very close to the brain and arteries
just below the brain. But, says Dr. Tewfik, once the scan is put into
the system, the surgeon can highlight those structures and trace out
1 2 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7
• FORWARD THINKING The brand new Santagati Center in Lawrence, Mass., features
a completely integrated video system.
William
Horne
