A surgery has been performed on a man's liver at Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin with help from 3-D technology.
Surgeon T. Clark Gamblin used special software called Pathfinder, which is currently used at Froedtert and 14 other hospitals across North America, to perform the operation on 60-year-old account manager Rick Goral's tumor, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Goral, from Denmark, Wis., has never smoked, and there is no history of cancer in his family.
The tumor was actually found in October while doctors were looking for aneurysms on an ultrasound.
Gamblin sketched out a dotted line around the tumor on a 3-dimensional image on a computer screen. The line represents the line he will cut out so he can take the cancer out, and the Pathfinder system will be available to help him.
"He'll have 90% of his liver after the operation," Gamblin said. "We know that the risk of him having any kind of liver failure is very, very low."
The surgery also follows twenty years after Goral's boss died of liver cancer, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
"The last few weeks I've had some sleepless nights," Goral said, "but I feel I'm in good hands."
Goral will be the sixth person at Froedtert to undergo surgery with Pathfinder. Only 1-3 percent patients who undergo liver surgery die from surgical complications within the first 30 days. Gamblin said the rate is even lower (less than 1 percent) at Froedtert.
Gamblin met with a team of 30 to 40 doctors on the day before the surgery to discuss how the operation should be carried out. The team would end up deciding to use the laparoscopic approach so Goral would experience much less pain and wouldn't have to stay at the hospital as long.
A white, plastic probe was used in the procedure and appeared on the computer screen to help Gamblin see where he was on the surgical path and make sure there was enough room around the tumor, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The surgery took a little over an hour to complete, and the entire tumor was removed.
Goral went into the procedure only thinking about getting it over with, but now he looks to be 100 percent by January.
"My number one thing is I'm hoping to coach my granddaughter's softball team," he said.
