Virtual reality used in treatment of blocked coronary artery for first time

A medical breakthrough has been made with the first-in-human use of virtual reality (VR) technology to guide the treatment of a blocked coronary artery.

Cardiologists from the Institute of Cardiology in Warsaw were able to successfully restore blood flow in the occluded right coronary artery of a 49-year-old male patient, assisted by computed tomography angiography projections in a wearable VR device based on Google Glass.

The devices provided 3D computed tomographic reconstructions via a mobile application, equipped with a hands-free voice recognition system and a zoom function, which was developed specifically for this purpose.

This enabled the doctors to clearly visualise the distal coronary vessel and ascertain the direction of the guide wire advancement in relation to the blocked vessel segment. The procedure was completed successfully with implantation of two drug-eluting stents.

Dr Maksymilian Opolski of the department of interventional cardiology and angiology at the Institute of Cardiology in Warsaw, said this study "provides proof of concept that wearable devices can improve operator comfort and procedure efficiency in interventional cardiology".