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Mexican Surgeon Uses VR Headset To Distract Patients During Surgery (bbc.com)
dryriver writes: The BBC has a longish story on a Mexican surgeon who makes his patients wear a VR headset that distracts them from the surgical procedure being performed on them. While Dr Mosso cuts and removes and stitches, the patient flies through a 3D VR re-creation of Machu Picchu or other fantastical places, oblivious to being in an otherwise -- for many patients -- stress inducing surgical setting. This removes the need to give patients powerful sedatives or painkillers to keep them calm and prevent their blood pressure from fluctuating. The surgeon only anesthetizes the part of the body where the surgery is performed, while the patient is absorbed in colorful and immersive VR worlds. An excerpt from the report: "The surgeon makes his first cut and blood spills down Ana's leg. She's surrounded by medical equipment -- stools, trolleys, swabs, syringes -- with super-bright surgical lamps suspended above the bed. Her vital signs are displayed on monitors just behind. But Ana is oblivious. She's immersed in a three-dimensional re-creation of Machu Picchu. She begins her journey with a breathtaking aerial view of the ancient city clinging to the mountainside, before swooping down to explore the details of stepped terraces, moss-covered walls and tiny stone huts. Mosso watches her carefully. A 54-year-old surgeon at Panamerican University in Mexico City, he's on a mission to bring virtual reality into the operating room. Mosso is using VR as a high-tech distraction technique, allowing surgeons to carry out operations that would normally require powerful painkillers and sedatives, with nothing more than local anaesthetic. He's trying to prove that reducing drug doses in this way not only slashes costs for Mexico's cash-strapped hospitals, but cuts complications and recovery times for patients too."
You might not forget, but it plus the local anesthetic makes it easy to ignore.
Many people get motion sickness when in a VR with a moving viewpoint. Having your patient suddenly sit up and vomit would probably not be a good idea during surgery. The simplest solution would probably be to test them on the VR first to see if they are nausea-prone, and choose the surgery VR experience based on that.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
A lot of people die because of miscalculated anesthesia. Not a lot of people die of bad VR.
lucm, indeed.
You might not forget, but it plus the local anesthetic makes it easy to ignore.
You can definitely ignore it.
After one of my many Hockey accidents, I had to get a bunch of metal put into my lower leg and near my ankle. During prep for surgery, they gave me a nice shot of "I don't give a damn". It wasn't a pain killer, but I gotta tell ya, I was one unconcerned person. With that, and a spinal tap. I was awake for the whole procedure. A little foggy, but I was conversing the whole time with the surgeons.
It was actually kinda cool, because I had questions about the various machinery they were using. They told the wife I must either be a scientist or an engineer for all my yapping. Regardless, without the shot of happy juice, I wouldn't have had such an enjoyable experience. Wish I knew what it was.
But if we want to talk about the Icewater boot on me that sprung a leak in the middle of the night, and dumped a few gallons of really cold water on the family jewels - that part of the hospital visit sucked.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Yeah, I'm on the fence about getting knocked out for surgery.
On the one hand I'm not squeamish, and find it interesting to watch them work.
On the other hand, if the doc is doing something delicate I'd just as soon there not be some doped-up engineer in the room distracting them while they work.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.