How a Surgical Display Shows Important Information During an Operation

This patent describes a system that helps surgeons by showing important information directly on a live video of the surgery, prioritizing what's most critical.

What it covers

This patent describes a surgical visualization system designed to improve a surgeon's awareness during an operation. The system includes an imaging device that captures a live video feed, or "livestream," of the surgical area. A display shows this livestream. A control module within the system detects various pieces of "surgical data," such as a patient's vital signs or instrument positions. It then assigns a "display priority value" to each piece of data, deciding how important it is. Based on these priorities, the module figures out the best way to arrange this data and presents it as an overlay directly on the livestream shown on the display. For example, during a complex abdominal surgery, the system could overlay the patient's real-time heart rate and blood oxygen levels directly onto the video feed of the surgical site, making critical alerts appear larger or in a more prominent position.

What it doesn't cover

• —Does not cover systems that display surgical data without dynamically assigning specific priority values to each piece of information.
• —Does not cover systems where surgical data is displayed on a separate monitor, rather than as an overlay on the live video stream of the surgical field.
• —Does not cover systems that only provide audio alerts or haptic feedback without a visual overlay of surgical data on the display.
• —Does not cover systems that display surgical data in a fixed, pre-set arrangement without dynamically determining it based on priority values.
• —Does not cover systems that only record surgical data for later review, without real-time display on the surgical field view.

The clever bit

The clever part is the system's ability to dynamically assign priority values to different surgical data points and then intelligently arrange that information as an overlay on a live video feed, ensuring the most critical details are always prominent.

Why it matters

This technology aims to enhance a surgeon's "situational awareness" by integrating critical information directly into their field of view. By dynamically prioritizing and displaying data, it could help reduce errors and improve patient outcomes, especially in complex or minimally invasive procedures. It is relevant to the ongoing advancements in surgical robotics and augmented reality applications in medicine.

Real-world examples

• 1.Surgical navigation systems
• 2.Augmented reality surgical platforms
• 3.Robotic surgery displays
• 4.Minimally invasive surgery visualization systems