Researchers from two rival Triangle schools have teamed up off the court to develop a resource that may lead to more accurate surgeries and cut down on recovery time for patients.

N.C. State University and UNC-Chapel Hill are partnering to improve the technology available to doctors who specialize in minimally invasive surgeries. And according to a report by the Triangle Business Journal, there is a potentially lucrative market for this kind of technology.

The popularity of minimally invasive surgeries has been increasing because surgeons desire to make as few incisions as possible to reduce risks and speed up recovery times for patients.

 “One goal of the research is to minimize the number of X-ray images taken,” said Edgar Lobaton, lead author of a paper about the research. 

Lobaton, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, said improving the accuracy of the technology will limit a patient’s exposure to radiation.

Radiation has been classified as a carcinogen, or cancer-causing substance, by the U.S. government and the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.

The research team has developed an algorithm that will act as a computer program, Lobaton said.

An algorithm is an effective, step-by-step method used to reach a final calculation.

The program’s goal is to help surgeons become more efficient, from decreasing X-ray images to optimizing the angle from which images are taken.

From this data, the resource will ultimately give surgeons a blueprint for where their incisions should be made.

 “It is very hard to know where the device is going during the surgery,” Lobaton said.

Before this invention, surgeons lacked certainty in their incisions as they pushed the boundaries of medical technology.

“Some of the devices deform a lot,” Lobaton said.

Lobaton said he thinks the program will be a useful resource for a surgeon who desires to know how precise he or she must be for a specific procedure. Minimally invasive surgeries tend to emphasize smaller, strategic cuts rather than single, large openings.

With these operations, surgeons typically begin by making several small cuts in a certain area of the body. These cuts can be as small as a few millimeters in length.

An endoscope, a thin tube with a miniature camera on the end, is then passed through one of the incisions. 

Special instruments are inserted into the other openings to probe, explore, repair and remove whatever is wrong.

The camera gives a magnified view of the surgical area and is usually projected onto monitors in the operating room.

Minimally-invasive surgeries are typically much cleaner and pose fewer risks for patients than open surgery.

Cancer tumor removals are often best performed through conventional methods such as open surgery, according to Nemours. 

Minimally-invasive surgeries may be more time-consuming, but often the benefits far outweigh the consequences.