BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Baton Rouge General is the first hospital in Louisiana to use a mixed reality 3D hologram during surgery.
The technology was exclusively released to high-end surgeons across the country including Orthopedic Shoulder Specialist with Baton Rouge Orthopedic Clinic, Wame Wagganspack.
The technology is called Stryker Blueprint Mixed Reality and Doctor Wagganspack has used it in about 5 shoulder replacement surgeries so far. The gear includes a headset that he places on top of his head in the operating room.
“When I originally started training we literally just had pictures and copies of X-rays that we posted on the wall so we constantly had to look away from the patient to refer to those,” said Wagganspack.
However, with this new technology, he no longer has to look away from the patient.
“And now with this new technology I can actually project the actual preoperative template or plan as a hologram that I can overlay on the patient so I can watch exactly what I’m doing, as I do it,” said Wagganspack.
He said not only is this a game changer, but it is also another step in accuracy. It helps surgeons become more accurate, which will help the patient in the long run.
“Long term I think the more accurate we are, the better you will do functionally, at least that’s the hope,” said Wagganspack.
The technology was used in local patient Winston Decuir’s procedure.
“I was a pretty active athlete when I was young, pitcher, played football, the whole business like that. Over the years, the shoulder just started not operating as it should operate,” said Decuir.
For the last 10 years, Decuir said his right shoulder has been in pain.
“I would get out in the back and play with the kids and grandkids couldn’t throw the ball as I used that sort of thing and in the past few years it had just gotten so bad I could hardly lift the arm and you know couldn’t sleep well at night,” said Decuir.
However, on February 19, 2023, his life changed for the better.
“The operation was pretty much painless and he sent me home with prescriptions for pain pills and I haven’t filled them,” said Decuir.
It has been 2 months since the procedure and Decuir said he is now able to do activities he wasn’t able to do before.
“If I were to pick up a cup of coffee or water it would shake like this because I’d be having trouble holding it or if I tried to lift my arm up over my head I couldn’t do it, but now I can” said Decuir.
Doctor Wagganspack said his first follow-up went great and expects a full recovery in 6 months.
“Anything that I can do to kind of bring us farther into the future and make it more accurate is very exciting to me and so I am honored to be a part of it,” said Wagganspack.
Wagganspack said he will continue to use the new technology in future procedures.
Head to brgeneral.org for more information.
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