Doctors Use Augmented Reality to Perform Surgery

Surgeons from the Asklepios Hospital on Hamburg-Barmbek, Germany, have successfully performed liver surgery with the help of an iPad and an augmented reality (AR) application. While this may not register as a major medical breakthrough, it does show that augmented reality technology is beginning to move away from the field of advertising and entertainment.

The AR application allows the liver to be filed and superimposed over the real world in real time. Virtual models allowed surgeons to locate and remove tumors that had grown on the patient’s liver. The app allowed surgeons to navigate the patient’s innards to complete the surgery.