An ophthalmoplasty operation using the Apple Vision Pro commercial headset was performed at the Catania Polyclinic. The university hospital company made this known by underlining that it was “the first session in the world created with the aid of this cutting-edge device not yet marketed in Europe”, which “offers significant health as well as economic benefits”.
There were two interventions carried out on an experimental basis by the team of the Ophthalmology clinic directed by Teresio Avitabile, and which had positive results. In the operating room of the Polyclinic there were ophthalmologists Andrea Russo and Matteo Orione who performed an “entropion correction of the lower eyelid” and a “curative blepharoplasty” on two sixty-year-old patients.
The interventions, specifically chosen among the routine ones – in the first case the lower eyelid rotated towards the inside of the eye causing abrasions at the corneal level with serious discomfort and often low vision – allowed the doctors to positively test the new technique used so far only in the United States in other specialties. Normally this type of operation is performed with the naked eye, whereas in this case the Apple viewer offered the possibility of taking photos and videos in three dimensions, always having them visible on a virtual screen and manageable with a simple gesture of the hand.
The surgeon also had the opportunity to compare the new photos with the three-dimensional pre-operative ones. Among the advantages of the new technique, the Polyclinic of Catania cites: the ability to record the operation, aid teaching and collaboration between surgeons remotely and the possibility for medical students to observe the operations from a first-person perspective.
Finally, real-time collaboration between surgeons with video calls and the sharing of the same field of vision is made possible for possible consultation and guidance during more complex surgical interventions.
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