A group of medical experts, software engineers and structural engineers in Kerala have unveiled a fully navigable, three-dimensional virtual human body called 3D Indiana that could be a substitute to cadavers in medical colleges. The virtual body will also help surgeons perform robotic surgery on the brain, heart and liver by pinpointing the precise location of a nerve or an organ part.
Endorsed by the Anatomical Society of India (ASI), 3D Indiana is an exact replica of the human with every organ, bone, muscle, nerve and blood vessel. A brainchild of Dr Jerome Kalister, a medical graduate from Alleppey Medical College who took to animation and industrial design in Delhi, 3D Indiana was digitally ‘sculpted’ by 15 professionals for more than three years. In terms of detail, 3D Indiana is considered better than the 1986 Visible Human Body Project by the National Library of Medicine, US.
“Each structure in the human body is recreated in its true anatomical relations based on real time dissections, CTs, MRIs and text books,” says Kalister. Students, surgeons or even laymen can turn around the 3D body, slice it from all directions and ‘enter and travel’ inside it to get three-dimensional images of everything inside the body. “3D Indiana will be the next big thing in anatomy. Several attempts at making virtual human bodies have succeeded only in parts and don’t match the details this 3D body provides. We will discuss it at the society’s annual conference in December and suggest it for medical colleges,” ASI president Dr K K Krishnamma said.(source:timesofindia.com)
Kalister, whose core team operates out of his clinic in Venmoney village, 150 km from Kochi, says the only thing the 3D body would lack is the “feel of a cadaver.” But renowned heart surgeon Naresh Trehan feels that is not much of a compromise given the advantages the virtual body has. “Virtual body gives the surgeon views and access a cadaver cannot. It’s more real than the real thing. Further improvements can help surgeons in robotic surgery,” says Trehan who did the first robotic heart surgery in the country.
Since 3D Indiana employs ‘volumetric anatomy’ to pinpoint an internal organ or a part, it is considered an ideal tool for robotic surgery. “Traditionally, anatomical positions of organs and spaces in the body are described in relation to one another. For example, the position of the gall bladder is described as being on the right side of the body closely in contact with the inferior surface of the liver…Volumetric analysis, which uses three intersecting axes, gives the exact position of a body part by mathematical calculation,” says Kalister.
Dr R Jayakumar, ENT surgeon at the Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), says the larynx (voice box) of the virtual body is so real that every minute layer is visible on the virtual image. “Enter the middle ear and it is like you are there, surrounded by tiny structures,” says Jayaku mar. In the ear of the 3D body, you can ‘isolate’ stapes, the smallest bone in the human body, and even stapedius, the smallest striated muscle measuring about one millimetre and view them from all directions. The same applies to any other part. “There you go,” Kalister demonstrates, moving the mouse as virtual scalpel towards the abdomen. “You peel off skin, then the muscles and dig deeper, move the intestine and inspect the lobes of the liver. There you see the portal vein. This is an area where expert surgeons move cautiously.”
A Team Of Experts Comes Out With A 3D Human Body To Replace Cadavers In Medical Colle
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