Development, Intraoperative Demonstration and Visualization of Surgical Assistance Functions

The aim of the clinical trial is to create the conditions for the comprehensive scientific use of new technologies such as augmented and virtual reality, computer-aided navigation and robotics in surgery in order to use these technologies in the future for improved surgical therapy for the benefit of the patient and to support the treating surgical team. The IDEMONSTRATE study is divided into two study parts: the development of a surgical assistance function based on routinely collected clinical (image) data that displays the position of anatomical structures (e.g. blood vessels, organs, tumors) in real time and the technical evaluation of this assistance system in the clinical environment.

For the development of the surgical assistance function, data routinely collected as part of surgical inpatient treatment will be used. For research purposes (and explicitly not to prepare for approval as a medical device), a surgical assistance function is to be developed from this that displays the position of anatomical structures in real time during visceral surgical interventions. This system will then be evaluated in the second part of the study with regard to its technical feasibility and medical relevance.

For the evaluation of the developed assistance function in the context of clinical treatment, the patients and the staff involved will be informed separately. All patients who are eligible for inclusion in the evaluating part of the study are fully capable of giving their consent. All doctors who will take part in the evaluation of the developed algorithm in a clinical context are specialists in general or visceral surgery; these doctors are informed in detail about the risks and sources of error in the context of the application before the developed algorithm and the associated assistance function is used. The evaluation of the developed assistance function takes place exclusively in the context of planned interventions, not in emergency situations.

Inclusion criteria

• Indication for surgery using a laparoscopic or open surgical camera, a surgical robot (e.g., DaVinci system), or an intraoperative imaging modality (e.g. sonography, intraoperative CT)
• Patient understands German

Exclusion criteria

• Lack of ability to consent