ric Grimson has come up with a way for neurosurgeons to look inside a patient's brain before they operate. The new method, jokingly refered to as "X-ray vision," promises to reduce many hazards of surgery by simplifying the most delicate of procedures. "Surgeons are seeing the structures they'd see if skin and bone weren't in the way," says Eric, a professor of computer science at MIT.
Typically, physicians use a flat, 2-D computer display during surgery and must mentally reorient the image to determine where to cut. But some neurosurgeons at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston have turned to Eric's system, called "enhanced reality visualization," to increase the reliability and safety of their operations.
Here's how it works: Pictures of the patient's brain are made using magnetic resonance imaging, computerized graphical models, and laser scans. These data are combined to provide an exact, 3-D map of the brain that is overlaid on the patient's head to guide the physician during surgery.
"It's a very personalized map," says Eric, adding that soon such images will be sent over the Internet, allowing doctors from around the world to simultaneously consult on a case.
