Surgeons and scalpels are things one expects to see in a typical operating room, but at Norton Children's Hospital in Louisville they have some extra special tools.
The new technology is called a Surgical Theater. With virtual reality goggles and controllers you can actually see and navigate inside a child's skull and brain.
"It's a way to let patients and families understand what we are talking about which isn't necessarily straight forward a lot of times, " said neurosurgeon Dr. Ian Mutchnick to WAVE 3.
It allows doctors, patients and even their families to get a 3D view of things like tumors and lesions and helps them to better understand a condition.
"You don't have to look at 30 two dimensional images to get a sense of the bone lesion. You can see here in green the lesion in respect to the brain, " Dr. Mutchnick demonstrated as he spoke to WAVE 3 NEWS.
The Surgical Theater takes 2D images from things like traditional MRI and CT scans and combines them to create a 360-degree color and virtual model. The technology even allows the doctor to practice the procedure beforehand while giving their young patients a chance to view what can be a very foreign experience in a familiar way.
Dr. Mutchnick said, "Put the goggles on the kid and give them a joystick. They just dig it. They dig it and their ability to access it is...there are no barriers."
According to WAVE 3 NEWS, Norton Children's Hospital is the first pediatric hospital in the region to offer Surgical Theater. They expect to use the technology on more than 100 patients a year.
