Augmented Reality Guidance for the Resection of Missing Colorectal Liver Metastases: An Initial Experience

Background Modern chemotherapy achieves the shrinking of colorectal cancer liver metastases (CRLM) to such extent that they may disappear from radiological imaging. Disappearing CRLM rarely represents a complete pathological remission and have an important risk of recurrence. Augmented reality (AR) consists in the fusion of real-time patient images with a computer-generated 3D virtual patient model created from pre-operative medical imaging. The aim of this prospective pilot study is to investigate the potential of AR navigation as a tool to help locate and surgically resect missing CRLM.