Surgeon-Manipulated Live Surgery Video Recording Apparatuses: Personal Experience and Review of Literature.

BACKGROUND: Visual recording of surgical procedures is a method that is used quite frequently in practices of plastic surgery. While presentations containing photographs are quite common in education seminars and congresses, video-containing presentations find more favour. For this reason, the presentation of surgical procedures in the form of real-time video display has increased especially recently. Appropriate technical equipment for video recording is not available in most hospitals, so there is a need to set up external apparatus in the operating room. Among these apparatuses can be listed such options as head-mounted video cameras, chest-mounted cameras, and tripod-mountable cameras. The head-mounted video camera is an apparatus that is capable of capturing high-resolution and detailed close-up footage. The tripod-mountable camera enables video capturing from a fixed point. Certain user-specific modifications can be made to overcome some of these restrictions. Among these modifications, custom-made applications are one of the most effective solutions.

METHODS: The article makes an attempt to present the features and experiences concerning the use of a combination of a head- or chest-mounted action camera, a custom-made portable tripod apparatus of versatile features, and an underwater camera.

RESULTS: The descriptions we used are quite easy-to-assembly, quickly installed, and inexpensive apparatuses that do not require specific technical knowledge and can be manipulated by the surgeon personally in all procedures.

CONCLUSION: The author believes that video recording apparatuses will be integrated more to the operating room, become a standard practice, and become more enabling for self-manipulation by the surgeon in the near future.

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