Such examples demonstrate
that computational modeling has added an entirely new dimension to surgery.
For the first time the surgeon is able to plan and simulate a surgery based
on a mathematical model that reflects the actual anatomy and physiology of the
individual patient. Moreover, the model need not stay outside the operating
room. Several groups of researchers have used these models to develop
ìaugmented realityî systems that produce a precise, scaleable registration of
the model on the patient so that a fusion of the model and the 3D stereo
camera images is made. This procedure has been carried out successfully in
removing brain tumors and in a number of prostatectomies in the Mayo Clinicís
Virtual Reality Assisted Surgery Program (VRASP) headed by Richard Robb.
In addition to improving
the performance of surgeons by putting predictive modeling and mathematically
precise planning at their disposal, computers are playing a major role in
improving surgical outcomes by providing surgeons opportunities to train and rehearse
important procedures before they go into the operating theater. By 1995
modeling and planning systems began to be implemented in both surgical
training simulators and in real time surgeries.
