It could be a science fiction movie or a time travel into the future, but it is not. It is now possible to operate diseased livers from virtual models in three dimensions. And without needing to open the patient to see what the doctor is going to find. Since last October, The Infanta Elena University Hospital (Valdemoro) has launched this innovative program of virtual hepatic laparoscopic surgery that consists of generating three-dimensional physical models that accurately reproduce the patient’s anatomy and in which the patient can be simulated. Surgical intervention before carrying it out. In simpler words: the damaged organ – the liver – is recreated in a 3D model with which doctors work before the operation.
“The liver is an opaque treetop, and the tumors that are inside we are not able to see them if we do not touch them. The virtual liver allows us to navigate inside the patient’s liver without having to intervene,” explains Dr. Santos Jiménez de los Galanes.