Dextroscope

The Dextroscope is a medical equipment system that creates a virtual reality (VR) environment in which surgeons can plan neurosurgical and other surgical procedures.

The Dextroscope was designed to be a practical variation of Virtual Reality which introduced an alternative to the prevalent trend of full immersion of the 1990s.

In one hand the surgeon holds a handle with a switch that, when pressed, allows the 3D image to be moved freely as if it were an object held in real space.

The other hand holds a pencil shaped stylus that the surgeon uses to select tools from a virtual control panel and perform detailed manipulations on the 3D image.

[5] The Dextroscope allows surgeons to interact with and manipulate the Virtual Patient, such as simulating inter-operative viewpoints or the removal of bone and soft tissue.

The use of the Dextroscope has been reported for several neurosurgical clinical scenarios;[1] [9] [10] - cerebral arteriovenous malformations[11] [12] - aneurysms[13] [14] [15] - cranial nerve decompression (in cases of trigeminal neuralgia and hemifacial spasm)[16] [17] [18] - meningiomas (convexity, falcine or parasagittal)[19] [20] [21] - ependymomas or subependymomas[13] [22] - craniopagus twin separation[23] [24] - transnasal approaches[25] [26] [27] - key-hole approaches[28] [29] [30] - epilepsy[31] - and a great variety of deep-brain and skull base tumors[32][33] (pituitary adenomas, craniopharyngiomas, arachnoid cysts, colloid cysts, cavernomas[34] ,[35] hemangioblastomas, chordomas, epidermoids, gliomas,[36] jugular schwannomas, aqueductal stenosis, stenosis of Monro foramen, hippocampal sclerosis).

Using the Dextroscope, radiologists can reconstruct multimodal models from high volumes of 2D slices – hence facilitating a better understanding of the 3D anatomical structures and helping with the diagnosis.

To bring the patient data into the operating room, in particular to neurosurgery, the DEX-Ray[65] augmented reality neurosurgical navigation system was developed in 2006-2008.

The Dextroscope and Dextrobeam were products of Volume Interactions Pte Ltd (a member of the Bracco Group), a company spun-off from the Kent Ridge Digital Labs research institute in Singapore.