Telethon 2025: Surgeons don virtual reality goggles to step inside hearts before surgery

Paediatric heart surgeons are trading traditional imaging for virtual reality goggles to better understand their patients’ anatomy ahead of complex surgeries.

A collaboration between Curtin University’s Hub for Immersive Visualisation and eResearch (HIVE) and Perth Children’s Hospital, Minerva is an innovative tool set to enhance the work of surgeons and radiologists treating children with congenital heart disease.

Congenital heart disease is a broad term for more than a dozen different abnormalities of the heart, heart valves or major blood vessels which are present at birth.

Between 2400 and 3000 Australian babies are born with CHD every year, making it the most common congenital disorder in newborns. Each form can vary in complexity, and can often co-occur.

“One of the challenges for surgeons is understanding the particular anatomy of each and every patient,” PCH head of cardiothoracic surgery David Andrews said.

“The sort of children we’re talking about are usually having their operations in their first month or so of life, so they’re tiny . . . and it’s important to know the best you can before you go in.”

It’s pretty straightforward for most patients and current imaging options suffice, Dr Andrews said, but for about five per cent “the anatomy becomes quite complex”.

Enter Minerva, a new mixed reality imaging technology in the form of VR goggles giving surgeons like Dr Andrews a non-invasive way to look at the intricacies of his tiny patients’ hearts before they even get to surgery.

“I can actually walk my way through a heart. I can slice and dice, I can twist and turn, I can go from top, bottom, side, upward, and try and figure out exactly what I’m going to be looking at when I get into surgery,” the experienced surgeon said.

The immersive tool, funded through a Telethon research grant, is the brainchild of Curtin Medical School Professor Zhonghua Sun, chief investigator on the project and an expert in medical imaging.

He said the main purpose was to help paediatric surgeons “develop the optimal surgical approach” in a bid to reduce the risks associated with complicated heart surgeries, making them safer and improving outcomes for children with CHD.

“You can analyse the mechanical defect, anatomy, pathology from all different angles, so they can have a better understanding about the situation before the surgery,” Professor Sun said.

Curtin HIVE extended reality researcher and developer Michael Ovens, who built the software, said Minerva is “the first easy to use virtual reality surgical planner”.

“It helps surgeons load up CT images in real time, and then they can visualise the virtual reality by moving it around with their hands,” Dr Ovens said.

“In VR, you can actually see the 3D anatomy how it really exists (in the body).”

In pilot use at PCH, the team hopes to see more clinicians donning VR goggles to better understand complex CHD cases with the roll out of Minerva planned in the 12 months or so.

“Virtual reality is not a very new technology, but in how it could assist with surgical planning of paediatric patents and especially the challenging congenital heart disease . . . this is a novel area,” Professor Sun said.

Its applications are wide-ranging, including use as a teaching tool for junior doctors, streamlining workflow in clinical settings, and supporting conversations with patients and their families.