Apple Vision Pro is worn by medical staff during spine surgery
A surgical instrumentator used Apple Vision Pro to assist her work during a spine operation. The equipment helped monitor vital patient information, as well as select the correct tools and follow up on the procedure. It is the first time that the Apple brand’s headset has been used in a surgery in Europe.
The software used during the surgery was created by the company Exex, from the United States, and the operation was performed at Cromwell Hospital, in London (United Kingdom). With Apple Vision Pro, you can see the real world, with the help of the device’s cameras, and virtual screens, with desired information.
“Exex’s software gives touchless holographic access to materials and procedure guides within the operating room, ensuring data and visualizations that have never been available before,” reads the statement published by the company and the hospital.
Suvi Verho, chief surgical instrumentalist at the London Independent Hospital, agrees with the usefulness of the app. “It eliminates human error and guesswork,” she says.
The company has already made similar software for HoloLens 2
The Apple Vision Pro was announced in 2023 and didn’t hit US stores until early 2024. It is not available in other countries, not even in the UK. In February, the headset was used for the first time in an operating room: neurosurgeon Robert Masson donned the equipment to help with spinal surgery.
Despite all the backlash, the Vision Pro isn’t the first headset to use augmented reality for medical purposes. Exex itself has developed similar software for Microsoft’s HoloLens 2. Well before that, Google Cardboard, a “cardboard headset” for attaching the smartphone, also assisted in surgery.
