Augmented reality reveals hidden liver tumors in a first patient

Under the surface of the liver, a tumor can sit exactly where the surgeon cannot see it. In keyhole surgery, the operation is carried out through small openings, and the only view of the inside of the body is the one the camera provides. In June 2026, a team at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg used a new system for the first time during an operation on a patient, and the patient was able to go home the following day.

The technology uses augmented reality: a 3D visualization of the tumor and surrounding structures is overlaid on the camera image. To make it work, the surgeon places a sticker about one square centimeter in size on the surface of the liver. The sticker carries a QR code and acts as an artificial landmark on an organ that is otherwise, as the researchers put it, as smooth as a polished floor. Combined with the camera's position and an X-ray taken before surgery, the marker allows the system to calculate where the tumor should appear. The image then updates as the camera moves. Torbjörn Lundh, professor at Chalmers, describes it as a GPS inside the organ. The system works as long as the camera can see the marker.

The project began about 10 years ago, when transplant surgeon Niclas Kvarnström and his colleague Mårten Falkenberg contacted the mathematicians Torbjörn Lundh and Klas Modin. Kvarnström heads the Transplant Centre at Sahlgrenska University Hospital and is a researcher at Sahlgrenska Academy. The team's mathematical tools were developed with master's thesis students and built around a concrete need in the operating room. Lundh stresses that the result depends on teams in which doctors and mathematicians trust each other and focus on the problem rather than on the tools.

The limits are clear. The system has been used in one operation so far. Further liver surgeries are planned for fall 2026, while clinical validation, product development, quality management and regulatory approval are still in progress. A larger international study, with the Intervention Centre at Oslo University Hospital and hospitals in Washington, is planned for later. No date for approval or routine use has been announced.

For surgeons performing liver operations, the change is a guide that follows the camera in real time instead of a map drawn before the operation. For patients who need tumor removal through keyhole surgery, the gain could be more precise targeting, once the system has been validated in more operations. The researchers also see wider uses: Lundh's team has just started a new project with Chalmers Next Labs to make the method applicable to other laparoscopic procedures, and Kvarnström says it could later serve tumors in other organs or help track a particular anatomical structure. For now, these remain intentions, and the first milestone is the series of liver operations planned for this autumn.