Surgeons Successfully Separate Siamese Twins

In a difficult 97-hour operation, a surgical team in Singapore successfully separated Siamese twins recently. The twins were connected at the tops of their heads and shared the same brain cavity. The surgery was complicated by the fact that their brains, partially fused, shared many overlapping blood vessels.

Careful preplanning for the operation was crucial to its success, says the team. Over the course of six months, the lead surgeon, Dr. Keith Goh, discussed complex questions with Dr. Benjamin Carson, a surgeon based on the other side of the world at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD, USA). A neurosurgical planning system called Dextroscope aided their discussion by allowing them to observe the same data. Featuring patients' bodies that have been recreated from data from two-dimensional magnetic resonance (MR) and computer tomographic images (CT), this new system allows medical teams to plan operations by manipulating computer-generated 3-D images.

Using stereoscopic goggles and manipulating a 3-D positioning system with a toggle bar and stylus, neurosurgeons utilizing Dextroscope enter into a virtual world that allows them to explore surgical scenarios well in advance of an operation. They are able to see organs and vessels inside a patient's body and can measure, manipulate, and even slice into them with a virtual scalpel. The system was developed by Singapore-based Volume Interactions and is powered by high-performance Onyx family systems of Silicone Graphics (SGI, Mountain View, CA, USA).





Related Links:
Volume Interactions
Silicone Graphics