Biofabrication Surgery Simulator
Biofabrication is a revolutionized technology in medical area. It combines the 3D printing technique and bio-technology together to solve the traumatic tissue damage problem. At current stage, this technology needs a range of people to cooperate to complete the tissue printing, such as material experts, IT experts, biomedical researcher or mechanic engineer. However, in the medical scenario, because it would be impossible for surgeons to understand a range of different fields, so how surgeon can easily interact with this advanced technology becomes a new challenge.
Modern technology has brought new interaction method to the world. This makes the surgeons’ intervention much easier. Therefore, in this article, I will present how surgeon can intervene the 3D tissue printing technology by using the Biofabrication Surgery Simulator.
Issue Targeting
In the hospital, the surgeon needs to have an accurate plan before the implant surgery. Except for the well-planned procedures, the most important part is the perfect implant tissue. Although the Biofabrication is an effective solution to help doctors to create the customized tissue frame, however, the limit is that how the doctors, who don’t have 3D modelling or engineering background, can access to the advanced technique.
In fact, the common procedure of doctors’ diagnosis and the Biofabrication technique is analysing patients’ scan data. However, the shortage of this procedure is over reliance on the scan result. Additionally, the doctors may have the distinct view from the scanning picture The printed tissue should be perfectly suit for the affected part, and this should be prepared before the surgery. While, normally, the doctors need to adjust their surgery plan and the implant tissue after directly seeing the broken part. And because the tissue is a 3D frame shape item, so this makes the conflict that the surgeon is difficult to modify printed tissue accurately only based on naked eye observation in the operation room.
Therefore, how surgeon can use the Biofabrication technology by themselves, and how they can create a perfect printed tissue suit for the surgery are the problems that need to be solved.
Resolution
To resolve the problem above, the key is to target the intervention point that the the doctor can access. The common point that the doctors and printing procedure is handling scanning data, and this is the most significant step of the creation of printing tissue. Besides, due to the doctors cannot modify the tissue during the surgery, so the most efficient way is to modify the tissue 3D Model before the printing. Therefore, the first technique need to be developed is remodelling 3D model that generate from scanning data.
Nowadays, the Virtual Reality (VR) technology is wildly used in a range of areas. This is an advanced technology that can immerse people into a whole artificial environment. The highlight of this technology is that it can bring people into a simulated world that computer created. While, in the current scenario, since the doctors cannot directly see the affected part in the patients’ body, they can use the scanning data to create the 3D model, and observe the wound in 3D image through VR devices.
The second technique that need to be developed is remodelling. In the virtual environment, the doctors could use their hand to zoom for better inspection. To implement this purpose, we can use the gesture tracking devices to track doctors hand gesture, and instantly send the image to the glasses, so that the doctors can have a real-time interaction with the 3D model. In terms of model modification, the computer should automatically generate the 3D model of the wound. Then the doctor would follow their surgery plan to operate on the wound part, the computer would accordingly calculate the changes and assist the doctors to finish the modelling. Finally, the modified model would be printed in 3D Bio-printer.
Benefits and Limits
By using the Biofabrication Surgery Simulator, the surgeons can easily control the shape of replacement tissue by themselves. It may bring several benefits. Firstly, the surgeons would have a solid image to observe the affected part, so that they can figure out the actual situation in patients’ body before the surgery. Secondly, the replacement tissue would be perfectly fit the affected part, and also the surgeon does not have to modify the tissue during the surgery. Last but not least, the simulator can help predict the potential risk before surgery, this would significantly raise the success rate of operation.
Meanwhile, there are some limits should be noticed. Except for the 3D printing technique, the gesture control and virtual reality techniques are the key parts of the whole simulation process. Nevertheless, the precision of the control can could be the limit at this moment. The the real-time remodelling process could be also hard to implement on interaction level. All these techniques could be combined together until they are developed completely accurate on responding time, resolution and interaction level etc.
Reference:
1. VR with hand tracking: http://www.cio.com/article/2859213/gadgets/facebooks-oculus-vr-adds-hand-tracking-3d-modelling-knowhow-with-acquisitions.html
2. Doctor image: http://core0.staticworld.net/images/article/2014/08/oculussurgeon-100373870-large.jpg
3. Leap Motion: https://www.leapmotion.com/product/vr