Purpose: A global endoscopic view of the surgical field could help avoid complications such as perforation of occluded organs and may reduce the endoscope displacements and also the usual time of laparoscopic procedure using a conventional endoscopy system. An augmented laparoscopy system was developed by increasing the field of view of a traditional endoscope. This system was implemented and tested in vitro using a testbench.
Method: High-definition miniature cameras were integrated into a traditional endoscope to obtain a panoramic vision device with a large field of view of the abdominal cavity. The additional cameras are mounted around the endoscopy body as a pair of glasses providing a global view of the abdominal cavity completing the traditional endoscopic view. Each camera can reach a frame rate of 30 images/second with a resolution of 1,600 x 1,200 pixels. To be able to fix the cameras to the endoscope, a deployment, fixation and rapid extraction system of the proposed device through the trocar was designed and validated in preclinical experiments (testbench and human cadaver). The preclinical experiments compared the time required to perform a pick-and-place task with the traditional endoscope alone and with the proposed system alone.
Results: A statistically significant reduction in procedure time was found using an augmented video endoscopy system for a pick-and-place task.
Conclusion: An augmented laparoscopy system with increased field of view is feasible and may be advantageous compared with a traditional endoscope. In vivo testing of the system should be done to establish the clinical utility of this innovation.