GOSH at the heart of new Operation Ouch episode

The episode called ‘No Sleeping in the Lab!’ demonstrates the use of innovative virtual reality platform, VheaRts, which provides clinicians, patients, and families with an immersive look at the human body to help them prepare for surgery.

VheaRts has been used in the planning of almost 100 surgeries over the past five years at GOSH. While mostly used for cardiac surgeries, it has also been used for planning other complex surgeries such as conjoined twin separations. It was designed by engineers from the UCL clinical cardiovascular engineering group and GOSH clinicians.

In the episode Operation Ouch host Dr Xand meets VheaRts founder and Senior Research Fellow, Dr Claudio Capelli and GOSH Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Ms Anusha Jegatheeswaran in the cardiac labs for a demonstration of the tool.

Ms Jegatheeswaran and Dr Capelli explain the tool by showing Dr Xand a demonstration model.

Dr Capelli said: "We have created 3D models of the hearts taken from patients’ recent medical images like a CT or an MRI.

“Through this, both the clinicians and patients can visualise and interact with the hearts through virtual reality. They can enlarge the heart, walk inside the heart and explore it from every angle. This allows a precise understanding and planning of the operation.

“We continue to investigate the long-term benefits of the tool, and our clinicians and teams frequently tell us that the tool has helped them to improve the anatomy visualisation, increased confidence in planning a surgery and that it is incredibly useful."

Ms Jegatheeswaran said: “This tool is a game changer, and is changing the way we do surgery, from interacting with patients through to planning all the steps of the procedure.

“Never before have children been able to look inside their own heart. Some of our patients and families may need some extra guidance and support before a surgery and this is a great way to help them prepare.”

The Operation Ouch episode also followed GOSH patient Callum as he prepared for cardiac surgery.

Callum is 16 years old and was born with a heart condition called aortic stenosis. This means his aortic valve is narrow and cannot open all the way, so Callum’s heart must work harder to push blood across his valve, which over time can add stress and weaken the heart. Callum was at GOSH to have a Ross-Konno procedure, a technique used to replace the damaged aortic valve with the patient’s own pulmonary valve.

During the episode, we also see Callum meet with his surgeon, Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Mr Martin Kostolny in his pre-surgery consultation where they discuss how the operation will take place. Callum was able to see first-hand what was likely to happen as Mr Kostolny talked through the steps he would take to help fix Callum’s heart.

When Callum first put the VR headset on and could see his own heart, his first words were “It’s awesome."

He said: “It makes me feel less nervous ahead of my operation as I now know what to expect. It was strange but cool. Seeing the inside of my heart was like seeing a giraffe without its head.”

Callum’s Mum Annemarie praised the use of the tool and said: “It takes the scary words out of the surgery Callum is having.

“It is great for other parents to see and learn what they can expect from these types of procedures.

“Callum loves to play his Xbox so he was right at home looking at the tool. I hope it will continue to be used by other GOSH families”.

The episode finishes inside the operating theatre as Mr Kostolny and the surgical team performed the procedure.

Callum’s surgery went as planned and now many months later, he is doing well at college and playing football – his favourite sport.

The episode is available to view now on BBC iplayer.