Abstract

  In urology, appropriate and simulated port placement is crucial for efficient laparoscopic surgery. Insufficient considerations when positioning the camera port result in the inappropriate management of individual anatomical conditions. Even when it is positioned based on a comprehensive examination of images obtained from preoperative CT and MRI, practitioners occasionally experience a sense of difficulty or dilemma due to a slight positional change after initiating the procedure. For the appropriate management of individual patients, sufficient experience is indispensable, as it is difficult for inexperienced surgeons to position the port intuitively；therefore, simulation and imaging for approaching targets are key. Furthermore, each port should be placed while avoiding damage to subcutaneous veins and intramuscular blood vessels. The image analysis application OsiriX allows users to avoid blood vessels when placing ports and intuitively approach targets by overlaying anatomical data, the vascular system, positional relationships among organs, and tumors on the body surface and applying such information to the internal organs. This paper reports our experience of performing “mixed reality surgery” for actual patients, adopting the project mapping technique to reflect patient data as realistic images, with discussions on its educational and clinical usefulness and challenges.