CarnaLife Holo supports innovative surgery of advanced gastrointestinal cancers.
Three-dimensional mixed-reality visualisation of medical imaging data, used at Neo Hospital as a tool supporting innovative surgery of advanced gastrointestinal tumours.
- IRE / MWA
- Irreversible electroporation and microwave ablation of liver and pancreatic tumours
- HoloLens 2
- 3D holograms built from DICOM data pulled straight from the hospital PACS
- Golden Scalpel 2021
- Honoured by the editors of Puls Medycyny and published in a peer-reviewed journal
- Product
- CarnaLife Holo
- Client
- Szpital na Klinach, Neo Hospital Group
- Field
- Surgical oncology
- Year
- 2021
Clinical context.
At Szpital na Klinach in Kraków (Neo Hospital Group), liver and pancreatic tumours are operated on using innovative technologies such as irreversible electroporation (IRE) and microwave ablation (MWA). Dr Ryszard Wierzbicki, MD PhD, leads the multidisciplinary team responsible for introducing these breakthrough therapeutic methods. Dr Wierzbicki specialises in treating primary and metastatic tumours of the liver and pancreas and — thanks to CarnaLife Holo — also those lesions that had been considered unresectable by classical surgical methods.
CarnaLife Holo is a module of the CarnaLife analytical telemedicine system, certified as a class IIb medical device supporting diagnostics.
The challenge.
Most tumours are currently diagnosed using computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or ultrasound (US). Surgery is the preferred treatment for most solid tumours and is crucial to the prognosis. However, there is a group of patients with solid tumours disqualified from surgery because the tumour was deemed unresectable on the basis of classical imaging methods.
Using 3D technology makes it possible to determine precisely the dimensions and topography of a lesion, giving a realistic and complete insight into the nature of the pathology. Looking at a flat, two-dimensional image may not be enough to make the right decision about qualifying a patient for surgery. Thanks to the precision of 3D imaging, the surgical oncologist can select the optimal extent of the procedure and establish whether it brings clinical benefit to the patient.
The solution.
CarnaLife Holo is software for holographic 3D visualisation of DICOM data, designed specifically for mixed reality in Microsoft HoloLens 2 goggles. The system can work directly with the hospital PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System), allowing imaging data to be retrieved instantly both in the pre-operative setting and in the operating theatre.
- Holographic 3D visualisation of DICOM data in HoloLens 2 goggles
- Direct integration with the hospital PACS
- Access to imaging data before the procedure and in theatre
- Precise assessment of the size and topography of the lesion
The surgeon's perspective
Irreversible electroporation is not intended for the surgical treatment of every tumour of the parenchymal organs. In practice it is used when a tumour cannot be removed — for example because of multiple metastatic lesions, or because of its location in a hard-to-reach place, such as close to large blood vessels whose damage would put the patient's life at risk.
This form of treatment of choice is used most often in very difficult liver and pancreatic cancers, and the procedure mainly aims to reduce the tumour mass so that it becomes more susceptible to adjuvant treatment such as chemotherapy. These are palliative procedures — their goal is not to cure the patient completely but to relieve and reduce the symptoms, such as pain, and to extend life in patients suffering from so-called “incurable” cancers.
Systemic treatment following surgery is an indispensable element of the therapeutic plan, and being able to start it quickly significantly increases the patient's chances of a favourable therapeutic outcome.
Results and recognition.
The work of the multidisciplinary team led by Dr Wierzbicki was honoured in the prestigious “Golden Scalpel 2021” competition run by the editors of Puls Medycyny, and was presented at the 5th Congress of Polish Oncology and the 24th Congress of the Polish Society of Clinical Oncology.
Scientific publication
Wierzbicki, Ryszard, et al. “3D mixed-reality visualization of medical imaging data as a supporting tool for innovative, minimally invasive surgery for gastrointestinal tumors and systemic treatment as a new path in personalized treatment of advanced cancer diseases.” Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology (2021): 1-7.
Full text of the articleWould you like more details of the deployment?.
The PDF document contains the details of the CarnaLife Holo deployment at Szpital na Klinach.
See the other case studies.
Interventional cardiology, vascular surgery and orthopaedics — the full list of clinical deployments.
Would you like to see CarnaLife Holo in your centre?.
We will arrange a demonstration on your own imaging data and walk you through how the deployment at Szpital na Klinach went.