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Device allows easy, high-quality surgical video capture via smarthphone
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AMSTERDAM — An iPhone coupled to the surgical microscope via a simple afocal adapter can produce high-quality surgical videos with the additional benefit of sound recording and video editing, according to one speaker at the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons meeting here.
Maninder Bhogal
Surgical videos are a useful tool for learning, Maninder Bhogal, an ophthalmology fellow at the Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, said. While traditional theater cameras produce high definition images, they also have different codecs and formats and may require downloading and transcoding from memory cards.
“The latest iPhones have the same specifications of high-definition theater cameras. They also have other benefits, such as sound recording and video-editing facilities. The EyeCam HD, a simple coupling device that connects the iPhone to a surgical microscope or slit lamp, was designed by Bhogal to provide an easier, cheaper and better way of recording surgery and learning from videos.
In a masked comparison done by 20 surgeons, the images produced by the iPhone outperformed those of a standard microscope-integrated camera. They also were judged equal in contrast and clarity, but better in depth of focus and color reproduction compared to those of a Sony HD theater camera.
“As learners, the big advantage of recording sound is that you can hear what the surgeon tells you while you are operating,” Bhogal said. “You can also have an immediate view back on the device and you can do on-device editing. You can use ultraslow motion to analyze single maneuvers and the difficulties you had in your surgery.”