Essay - Computer Technology Has Opened Up A Whole New World for...

Computer technology has opened up a whole new world for surgeons and patients. Computer-assisted surgeries can be categorized in a myriad of ways ***** include medical image processing and visualization, such as CT, MRI, ultr*****ound or angiography; surgical simulation which uses medical image in*****mation f***** optimizing the ***** procedure; and surgical navigation that provides image registration between pre- ***** intraoperative images, and organ deformation analysis.

***** navigation also *****fers the surgical team with images of a p*****tient in surgery and includes endoscope, ultrasonography, interventional CT/*****, ***** surgical stereoscopic displays.

Computers ***** assist in the overall treatment of a p*****tient by limiting ***** amount of surgical time required in the operating room, monitoring the anesthesia, allow for less invasive surgery, and decrease the amount of ***** spent of hospitalization and decreases ***** overall costs of care.

***** education, computers are used as support technology in the area ***** decision-mak*****g in surgeries and ***** ***** training of surgical skills.

However, ***** in surgery will never replace the importance of the surgeon's own decision-making process. CAS is available to support the surgeons, not replace them.

CAS is among the fields of virtual reality application. In recent years, research in virtual ***** ***** surgical procedures, including stereoscopic display, force-feedback and human-machine interface are extremely important in CAS research.

The computer-assisted minimally invasive surgery project or CAMIS, which began in September 1994 ***** was completed in June 2000, integrated CAS with magnetic resonance imaging or computerized *****mography and non-invasive real time imaging, such as 3-D ultrasound.

***** goal ***** this ***** was to improve surgical precision and patient outcomes ***** enabling surgeons to obtain accurate ***** images of internal surgical fields bef*****e ***** during surgery. The $10 million funding was received from Congress through the office of the Air Force Surgeon General and provided valuable information on ***** breast and other biopsies, orthopedic surgeries, craniofacial reconstruction, and endoscopic *****.

CAMIS proved valuable technical ***** economic benefits in its use. Total hospital stays and health care costs for craniotomy surgeries were reduced by 20 percent. Savings to the U.S. public of $27 billion annually in health ***** costs have been estimated. The system is now ***** in ***** surgery and neurosurgery division at the Clevel***** Clinic.

Computers and virtual reality are fast becoming standard ***** procedures, said an MSNBC ***** report this year. Physici*****s are virtually flying through colons to detect cancerous polyps; surgeons are simulating the repair of gunshot wounds with virtual patients; robots are taking over during hip replacement surgeries; and physicians are eliminating tumors without making a single incision in the skin. Most of these technologies bring together endoscopic surgery, computer imaging, electronic databases and communication networks, all at the surgeon's fingertips.

*****, 600,000 gall bladder surgeries are per*****med in the U.S. each year, with 95 percent of ***** being completed *****ally. About 95,000 people are diagnosed ***** colorectal cancer each year. Early diagnosis of ***** disease means the difference between life ***** de*****h. Traditionally, physicians diagnosed colorectal cancer in an uncomfortable and