Background

Gallbladder surgery is one of the world’s most common surgical procedures and is the standard treatment for symptomatic gallstones and infection of the gallbladder.

In Australia, more than 40,000 gallbladder surgeries are performed each year. Although the risk of a major complication is low, the high volume of surgeries means that there are a significant number of patients who experience complications from surgery, including injury to the bile duct, which typically occurs through misidentification during surgery. Bile duct injury can impact a person’s quality of life by causing ongoing health issues that require repeated interventions and can even reduce a person’s life expectancy by between 5-10 years.

ACMD Project

Dr Matthew Read, an upper gastrointestinal surgeon at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, is pioneering research to explore the use of augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) to prevent complications from gallbladder surgery. Dr Read, Prof James Bailey and Dr Katie Davey (both from the University of Melbourne) are working to develop a predictive algorithm that surgeons can use to gain an improved accuracy in the identification of critical nearby structures during surgery. Dr Read believes AI-assisted surgery is the way of the future and this technology will be beneficial for other surgical procedures.

Contact

For more information email Dr Read and Dr Katie Davey.