title: Remote video management for intraoperative consultation and surgical telepresence.
abstract: Telemedicine applications can connect surgeons from one operating room (OR) to a distant consultant. The additional capacity of telepresence provides remote consultants the ability to control their own view of the surgical field using robotic management of a network camera. The goal of this study was to compare access to surgical field by robotic camera versus image controlled by the surgeon using a camera mounted to the table. A Stryker laparoscopic camera was attached to the OR table using a Mediflex arm, and video image was transmitted with a Polycom Transfer Control Protocol (TCP)/Internet Protocol (IP) connection. A network Sony camera was mounted on a tripod, connected over the Internet using a parallel TCP/IP connection. A Web interface allowed control of the camera angle and zoom. In 22 consultations effective bandwidth was 800 Kbps for the network camera and 1024 Kbps for the Stryker camera. The operation was thyroidectomy and the consultant was either in Moscow, Russia, or Bucharest, Romania. The quality of the image in both methods was indiscernible. The ability to identify critical surgical anatomy was also indiscernible. No transmission session failed or had an interruption. The robotic camera can be a powerful tool for surgical collaboration.
authors.affiliation: Medical Informatics and Technology Applications Consortium, Department of Surgery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia 23298, USA.
authors.forename: Cosmin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boanca
authors.forename: Azhar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rafiq
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tamariz
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lavrentyev
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Onisor
authors.forename: Evgeniy
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Flerov
authors.forename: Irinel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Popescu
authors.forename: Ronald C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Merrell
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007430:Intraoperative Care; D010535:Laparoscopy; D009873:Operating Rooms; D019114:Remote Consultation; D012371:Robotics; D012383:Romania; D012426:Russia; D017216:Telemedicine; D013965:Thyroidectomy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D014741:Video Recording