Novel microscope-integrated stereoscopic display for intrasurgical optical coherence tomography

Abstract

The first generation of intrasurgical optical coherence tomography (OCT) systems displayed OCT data onto a separate computer monitor, requiring surgeons to look away from the surgical microscope. In order to provide real-time OCT feedback without requiring surgeons to look away during surgeries, recent prototype research and commercial intrasurgical OCT systems have integrated heads-up display (HUD) systems into the surgical microscopes to allow the surgeons to access the OCT data and the surgical field through the oculars concurrently. However, all current intrasurgical OCT systems with a HUD are only capable of imaging through one ocular limiting the surgeon’s depth perception of OCT volumes. Stereoscopy is an effective technology to dramatically increase depth perception by presenting an image from slightly different angles to each eye. Conventional stereoscopic HUD use a pair of micro displays which require bulky optics. Several new approaches for HUDs are reported to use only one micro display at the expense of image brightness or increased footprint. Therefore, these techniques for HUD are not suitable to be integrated into microscopes. We have developed a novel stereoscopic HUD which uses spatial multiplexing to project stereo views into both oculars simultaneously with only one micro-display and three optical elements for our microscope-integrated OCT system. Simultaneous stereoscopic views of OCT volumes are computed in real time by GPU-enabled OCT system software. We present, to our knowledge, the first microscope integrated stereoscopic HUD used for intrasurgical OCT with a novel optical design for stereoscopic viewing devices and report on its preliminary use in human vitreoretinal surgeries.