Holography-guided heart surgery for more precise, speedier incisions

SINGAPORE – A science-fiction trope has turned into reality with Singapore’s first holography-guided heart surgery successfully conducted by a team of surgeons from the National University Heart Centre, Singapore (NUHCS).

The doctors, wearing holographic visors, could see a three-dimensional (3D) hologram of the patient’s heart, derived from a CT scan and projected into space, giving them a coloured “X-ray” vision of the exact inner organ anatomy and position in space, as if they could peek through the chest wall, in real time.

The technology serves mainly as an aid for doctors to better plan surgery and anticipate potential difficulties, potentially reducing trauma and bleeding complications that might arise during surgery.