3D modeling is becoming a well-developed field of medicine, but its applicability can be limited due to the lack of software allowing for easy utilizations of generated 3D visualizations. By ...leveraging recent advances in virtual reality, we can rapidly create immersive anatomical scenes as well as allow multiple users to occupy the same virtual space: i.e., over a local or distributed network. This setup is ideal for pre-surgical planning and education, allowing users to identify and study structures of interest. I demonstrate here such a pipeline on a broad spectrum of anatomical models and discuss its applicability to the medical field and its future prospects.3D modeling is becoming a well-developed field of medicine, but its applicability can be limited due to the lack of software allowing for easy utilizations of generated 3D visualizations. By leveraging recent advances in virtual reality, we can rapidly create immersive anatomical scenes as well as allow multiple users to occupy the same virtual space: i.e., over a local or distributed network. This setup is ideal for pre-surgical planning and education, allowing users to identify and study structures of interest. I demonstrate here such a pipeline on a broad spectrum of anatomical models and discuss its applicability to the medical field and its future prospects.
BACKGROUNDOur research team obtained a human heart with the right lung attached from a recent transplantation patient via a research collaboration with LifeSource, a local organ procurement ...organization. The heart and lungs were not viable for transplant given the patient's medical history and were subsequently offered to the University of Minnesota for research purposes. METHODSUsing Visible Heart® methodologies, we reanimated the specimen en bloc and collected multimodal direct visualization from inside the cardiac chambers and great vessels of the functioning heart. RESULTSVideo footage, using videoscopic and fluoroscopic imaging, was captured and is presented in this report as supporting material. Multiple still images highlight the surgical suture sites of the transplantation procedures. CONCLUSIONSThis multimodal imaging offers unique educational value for medical students, clinicians, and medical device designers for improving transplantation techniques and patient outcomes.
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