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ZAP! Surgery Beyond the Cutting Edge
Technology opens up the world of surgery without opening up the
patient. January 10, 2001
through January 2, 2002 Zap! showcases Pittsburgh’s medical
community as a leader in high-tech surgery, and Carnegie Science Center as an innovator of high-tech
exhibits. The only traveling
exhibit in the world to detail the trend toward less invasive surgery, it
presents complex technologies and the science behind them through unique
interactive experiences that appeal to a broad audience. All of the interactive programs were
developed by CSC, including a 15-passenger motion simulator, and high-tech
virtual reality components. The
exhibit's presentation methods, such as flat screen monitors, create a
futuristic environment for the visitor. It debuted at the
Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland in October, 2000, where it was featured
at the annual Association of Science and Technology (ASTC) conference, and
was seen by science center representatives from all over the world. After Pittsburgh it begins its
national tour to such diverse locations as Discovery Place in Charlotte,
North Carolina; the Museum of Health and Medical
Science in Houston, Texas; The Tech Museum in San Jose, California; OMSI, in
Portland, Oregon; Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey; and
other sites. As a high visibility
Pittsburgh export to science centers all over the country, it
represents a major achievement of Carnegie Science Center and Carnegie
Museums of Pittsburgh. Good morning, doctor.
You’ve got a busy schedule today. First, the paramedics brought in a patient
with a foreign object in her lung; then there’s the brain tumor. After lunch,
you’ve got the kidney stones to take care of, and then the liver tumors. Oh, and sometime today, you need to
repair some leaking blood vessels on a three-foot wide eyeball. Okay, maybe this is not the
script of a television show like ER. But Zap! Surgery Beyond the Cutting Edge, starting its Pittsburgh run
in its entirety next month at Carnegie Science Center, is still very cool. Three years in the making, Zap! examines the scientific
principles behind several surgical
technologies: endoscopes, lasers, ultrasound, cryosurgery, and the Gamma
Knife, which focuses gamma rays to destroy harmful structures in the brain
without incision. It takes a
close look at less invasive procedures that identify Pittsburgh as one of the
world leaders in medicine. "All of the technologies use scientific principles
found in school curricula," says Linda Ortenzo, exhibit development specialist
and project leader for the exhibit. "We stress how these principles are
used in the technologies, to
allow people to explore the ways that science can be used to solve problems. We also picked procedures that are
likely to be experienced by a wide range of people, as well as things that
make people say ‘I didn’t know they could do that!’" Each of the five technologies is
explained in a module (a group of interactives). Each module contains three
areas: "Explore It," where interactive exhibits explain the basic
principles behind the technology; "Real Stories/Real Surgery,"
videos of actual procedures accompanied by interviews with doctors, patients,
and scientists and a clear picture of the risks and benefits of each type of
surgery; and "Be the Surgeon," where you can put it all into
practice and perform simulated surgical procedures. Unlike the real thing,
when you make a mistake here, you can go back and start again. Zap! is a lot to digest (Sorry. Unavoidable). There are nearly 40 interactives,
counting ZapCam, a motion-simulator
ride through the human body, and Zap!
Jr., an area designated especially for young children. Fortunately, since
the exhibit may require a return visit or two to absorb everything, it will
be here all year. To design and implement Zap!, the core project team of Ortenzo,
Pete Feher (senior exhibit designer), Dr. Patty Antalis (exhibit development
specialist), and Lauren Eckie (exhibit designer) spent enough time in
operating rooms, doctors and scientists offices, to almost hang out a shingle and start their own
practices. Each portion of the
exhibit was reviewed by a panel of doctors, nurses, teachers and scientists,
including Ortenzo’s sister, Col. Carole Ortenzo, M.D., a military surgeon at
Ft. Benning, Georgia. The surgeries portrayed in the
exhibit run the gamut from tattoo removal and liposuction to the repair of
vocal cords and the removal of tumors from the brain and the liver. Although
the video clips give plenty of warning, you may want to preview them before
watching them with younger children, as some of them can be slightly graphic.
And, even though the surgeries are as minimally invasive as they can be, if
you were considering liposuction as a quick and easy way to drop a few
pounds, take a good look at the size of that probe they use—training for the
marathon might be a more pleasant option. Each of the surgical processes
featured in Zap! is minimally
invasive, representing a dramatic change from past surgerical techniques,
some of which are outlined in instruction panels that line the ZapCam ride. The panels highlight the
history of surgery, beginning with the times when people drilled holes in
your head, bled you with leeches, and made sure your "humours"
weren’t out of whack. The diagnostic methods of several
centuries ago often consisted of trying to determine which god you had
angered by your evil behavior. This in turn would determine the treatment.
How many holes would you need to release the pressure? Would a finger
amputation be enough appeasement, or would the whole hand have to go? Given
that kind of history, maybe the doctor-patient relationship today isn’t quite
so bad as we may think. Still, being bled by leeches may be preferable to
wading through several volumes of health-care provider forms. ZapCam, a
four-minute "ride" through the human body in a motion simulator, is
just like the movie Fantastic Voyage,
only without the Hollywood melodrama. After you board the ZapCam vehicle, you embark down the
throat, into the stomach and intestines, and right when it looks like you’re
heading for oblivion, you take a sharp turn into the liver. ZapCam goes on to visit the lungs, the
heart, the eye, and then, right when you’re in the brain, trying to use the
gamma knife to obliterate a tumor…well, that would be telling. Zap! Jr., an area designed for children five to eight,
features a gigantic version of the Hasbro game “Operation,” as well as toy
medical instruments, brightly colored lab coats and surgical scrubs, a body-shaped
magnetic puzzle that illustrates organ systems, and much more. Although Zap! Jr. is theoretically
for kids, in Cleveland, Ortenzo spotted two grown women, no kids in sight,
facing off across the “Operation” board. The wide range of
visitors—individuals, families, spanning a wide spectrum of ages and
backgrounds—was very gratifying to the Zap!
team, as they watched people too engrossed in conversation to notice the
lines they were standing in. "That’s always the goal of
an exhibit," she says. "For people to gather together, spark
stimulating discussions, learn, and have fun." ˇ
Gamma Knife The Leksell Gamma KnifeŽ is used
to treat disorders of the brain when conventional surgery would be too risky.
Gamma rays (high-energy electromagnetic waves produced by certain radioactive
elements) are used to destroy tumors and other disorders. The instrument can
focus the energy of 201 gamma rays at a specific target without damaging
surrounding tissue. This is done by fitting the patient with a helmet with
201 tiny holes, each of which can be opened or closed to permit the gamma
rays to attack a target. Doctors and physicists decide which holes should be left
open and which should be closed. ˇ
Lasers Lasers (Light Amplification by
Stimulated Emission of Radiation) are beams of electromagnetic radiation .
Properties of lasers allow for a highly concentrated beam of energy that can
travel long distances without losing its
focus. ˇ
Endoscopes Endoscopes are tubes with small
bundles of optical fibers. When the tubes are inserted into the body through
tiny openings, the fibers can transmit images onto a screen, or direct light
into the body, enabling physicians to perform surgery through tiny incisions. ˇ
Ultrasound When an object vibrates, it
generates sound. A sound’s frequency is measured by the number of vibrations
which occur per second. Extremely high frequencies—more than 20,000
vibrations per second—are termed ultrasonic. These high-frequency sounds can
be used to break up kidney stones. Instruments that vibrate at these
frequencies are used to remove cataracts and deposits of fat. ˇ
Cryosurgery The prefix "cryo"
means cold. Liquid nitrogen, which exists at temperatures lower than 300
degrees below zero, has been used for many years to remove external tumors,
moles and warts on the skin. Recently, surgeons have been able to use an
instrument cooled by liquid nitrogen to destroy tumors inside the body, as
well. Liquid nitrogen circulates through a cyroprobe, a narrow instrument,
inserted into a tumor. Tissue
surrounding the probe freezes rapidly, producing an ice ball. This causes ice crystals to form within
the cells of the tumor, damaging the membranes and internal structures of the
cells, resulting in cell death. The tissue is warmed and then refrozen a number of times
until the selected tumors have been destroyed. |
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