Consumer Video Gear Debuts in the Operating Room

A new study suggest that gadgets like the GoPro camera can be used to record images from the operating room (OR) for training and medical education.

Researchers at the University of Chicago (IL, USA) conducted a study to examine the utility of a GoPro (San Mateo, CA, USA) camera for high-definition (HD), point-of-view (POV) recordings of plastic and reconstructive surgery. To do so, a GoPro HERO 3+ Black Edition camera was head-mounted on the surgeon and oriented to the surgeon’s perspective using the GoPro App. The camera was used to record four cases: two fat graft procedures and two breast reconstructions.


During the first three cases, an assistant remotely controlled the GoPro via the GoPro App. For case number four, the GoPro was linked to a WiFi remote, and controlled by the surgeon. The researchers found that the lighting contrast due to the overhead lights resulted in limited washout of the video image in the first two cases. Camera settings were therefore adjusted for the next two cases to a narrower field of view, which enabled the camera’s automatic white balance to better compensate for bright lights focused on the surgical field. The study was published on March 6, 2015, in the Journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

“The application of devices like the GoPro for everything from skydiving to snorkeling has been amazing. We’re just trying to tap into that possibility in surgery,” said senior author David Song, MD, MBA. “You can buy 10 or 20 of them for the price of the high-end video equipment we used to have, so now you can give them to your residents and let your colleagues borrow them. It’s been a wonderful tool for us.”

Video recordings of surgical procedures provide a method for analyzing operative performance, improving surgical education, and presenting cases to a wide audience. Although many hospitals provide professional video recording services, do-it-yourself video systems using popular “action” cameras such as the Contour (Provo, UT, USA) helmet camera and the GoPro HERO 3 Silver Edition are also sufficiently able to compensate for the contrasting light environment of the OR and capture high-resolution, detailed video.

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