3D modeling and virtual visualization takes cardiac surgery planning to the next level - Children's National

Those hours can be critical for surgeries on a timeline, such as partial heart transplants. Recently, Dr. O'Hara and Yue-Hin Loke, MD, director of the 3D Cardiac Visualization Laboratory, worked together to provide computed tomography (CT) based 3D visualization for the first mitral valve partial heart transplant at Children's National. The case required exceptionally precise measurements as the surgery included the first replacement of an artificial mechanical valve with living mitral valve from a donor heart. The valve from the donor heart and precise areas of extra heart tissue were needed to rebuild structures of the heart that were no longer present after the patient's existing artificial valve was placed. The surgeon wanted a geometrical twin of the patient's heart to better understand how the donor valve would be transplanted.

The ability to produce highly detailed models in the virtual space allows surgeons to see realistic, 3D detailed structures inside the heart which typically don't show well using more routine cardiac imaging modalities such as transthoracic or transesophageal echocardiogram. The models also allow surgeons to customize views of complex structures and offer tailored visual orientations of areas in and around the heart.

Dr. Loke says the technology is often used by the surgeons to assist with planning for many different procedures when the heart anatomy is complex. One cardiac surgeon, for example, used 3D visualization for planning ventricular assist device cannula placement to account for, and avoid, other heart structures during implantation.