Severance Hospital said its surgeons successfully finished a spinal surgery with its newly implemented surgical imaging system O-ARM O2 and accompanying navigations system, Stealth Station.

The medical team, led by Severance’s neurosurgeon Kim Keung-nyun, performed spinal surgery on a 60-year-old male suffering from radiating pain in the spine and leg using the O-ARM O2 and Stealth Station, the hospital said. The surgeons confirmed the affected area through the 3D imaging information and then used the navigation to execute a posterior fixation surgery accurately.

Professor Kim Keung-nyun (left) operates on a patient by looking at the images of the region through Stealth Station in real-time.

"With 3D navigation technology at the surgical site, we can see the area we are operating on in real time, greatly increasing accuracy,” Professor Kim said, noting that the equipment can reduce side effects and risks of reoperation. It will play a big role in alleviating the patient's physical pain and financial costs, the professor added.

Medtronic’s O-ARM O2, a surgical imaging platform, records high-quality images of the patient’s body during surgery in 3D, which then is automatically transmitted to the Stealth Station. O-ARM O2 works seamlessly with Stealth Station, a navigation system that gives the doctor information about the patient’s anatomy while decreasing X-ray exposure.

The systems are primarily used in spinal surgery to help doctors navigate through each part of the spine.

About 1,200 units of Medtronic’s O-ARM are in operation globally, with four running in Korea, according to the hospital. Severance said that it is one of four local hospitals equipped with the system, and the only one to use the second-generation version, which has twice the range of 3D imaging and half the radiation compared to the first.

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