June 7, 2007- Viking Systems Inc. announced that for the first time worldwide, their 3Di Vision System had been used to perform videothoracoscopic surgery. The three procedures, performed with the 3-D visualization technology at the Regional Oncologic Hospital (C.R.O.B) in Rionero in Vulture, PZ, Italy by Dr. Cosimo Lequaglie, were a parietal pleurectomy, a sublobar resection, and a chemical pleurodesis. Each surgery was successfully performed and met with positive reactions from the surgeon and the hospital staff.
Dr. Lequaglie, chief of Oncologic and Thoracic Surgery at the hospital explained, “Viking's 3Di Vision System is significant for our practice because it provides a more substantial and effective image than those we traditional obtain via 2-D vision systems. The impact 3-D has on minimally invasive surgery for benign and malignant diseases is significant because the higher resolution, stereoscopic depth we are now afforded allows the same type of confidence we are usually only allowed during open procedures."
The system also includes an information management solution known as Infomatix, which provides immediate, picture-in-picture access for a surgeon to additional surgical information through voice activation. This critical information can be provided simultaneously with the surgical video via picture-in-picture on the surgeon's Personal Head Display.
“The ability of the system to provide both a high-definition 3-D image and pre-existing medical data into one personal head display finally offers the kind of support a surgeon needs to allow greater precision and speed without being bound to the positioning of the monitors in the room,” Dr. Lequaglie said. “The result is greater concentration and best posture providing less fatigue during each procedure. For thoracic surgery, these improved results are invaluable."