Stereoscopic Technique In Micro Ear Surgery

Background: Anatomic structures in temporal bone are so tiny and deeplylocated that they are hardly to be touched or observed. Besides, anatomic structures intemporal bone, such as facial nerve, internal carotid artery and sigmoid sinus, have awide association with the anatomic structures in the area of basicranial, entocranial,parotid gland and upper neck. So it is hard for begininers to get a visualizedthree-dimensional sensation of these anatomic structures in temporal bone. Andsurgical fields shown with binocular microscope are three-dimensional in the mocroear surgery, surgeons can obtain stereoscopic information of the surgical field.However in most hospitals only surgeon and chief assistant can obtain stereoscopicinformation of surgical field during surgery, because of the limitation of the stereoequipments. Besides, stereoscopic information of micro ear surgery is also difficult tocapture and process. Until now, most operating room (OR) staff and people outsidethe hospital can only view two-dimensional (2D) videos and images from micro earsurgery. Compared to a true stereoscopic surgical field,2D media may lose someuseful three-dimensional (3D) information. In addition, inexperienced users may beconfused and obtain incorrect information from these2D videos and images.Objective: To explore methods of capture and process stereoscopic imformationfrom micro ear surgery. To explore a novel approach to demonstrate anatomicstructures and operation procedures in temporal bone with stereoscopic images.Materials and Methods: Stereoscopic reconstruction methods were reviewed.Methods of stereoscopic information reconstruction were slected to apply in microear surgery. Then the method was re-checked in clinical and anatomic practice.Besides, a great number of stereoscopic materials were processed, and stereoscopicmaterials were successfully used to re-build stereoscopic image of surgical fields.Results: Stereoscopic technique was successfully applied in micro ear surgery.The stereoscopic reconstruction system was built to process stereoscopic informationof micro ear surgery. The working flow and quality control standards of processstereoscopic information of micro ear surgery was defined in detail. A database of 12,000pieces of original photos of temporal bone anatomy were captured, and acollection of624pieces of paired stereoscopic images were processed according tothe working flow. Moreover, the amount of paired stereoscopic images can beincreased and images can also be updated continuously. Besides, the stereoscopicmonitoring system based on binocular operating microscope was made, realtime localmonitoring and remote live online of surgical fields can be achived preliminarily.Conclusions: Stereoscopic techinique is feasible in micro ear surgery.Stereoscopic information reconstruction system was highly intergrated and easy touse, and the original stereoscopic information of surgical fields can be collected andrebuilt in highly quality. The stereoscopic reconstruction methods is valueable inmicro ear surgery.