Olympus launches Visera Elite III platform in US for surgical imaging

18 Mar 2026

Collaboration with Sony designed to enhance visualization during minimally invasive surgeries.

Medical imaging company Olympus has announced the US release of its Visera Elite III surgical imaging platform, developed by the Sony Olympus Medical joint venture.

With US release the platform is now available in all global regions, and will be on display at the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) conference in Tampa, Florida, starting March 25th 2026.

The Visera Elite III platform supports a wide range of clinical applications including arthroscopy, colorectal, bariatric and thoracic surgery, according to Olympus product data.

"Designed to meet the needs of multiple specialties like general surgery, urology, gynecology, ENT and more, the Visera Elite III platform offers 3D and 4K imaging, fluorescence-guided surgery (IR), Narrow Band Imaging (NBI) technology and the Yellow Enhancement (YE) mode, all in one system," said the company.

YE is a color-conversion feature in laparascopic imaging intended to enhance contrast by causing certain structures, those normally colored orange-yellow, to appear more distinctly yellow to clinicians. This is a way to increase the visibility of blood vessels, nerves and lymph nodes, assisting surgeons to differentiate them from fatty tissue.

Olympus developed its NBI technology to enhance the visibility of vascular and mucosal structures, using an optical filter arrangement to filter white light into specific wavelengths preferentially absorbed by hemoglobin. NBI then displays capillaries on the mucosal surface in brown on a surgeon's monitor, with veins in the submucosa shown in cyan.

Integrating data into electronic health records

The new platform is the latest product developed by Sony Olympus Medical (SOMED), a joint venture between the two companies intended to leverage Sony's patent portfolio across broadcast, film, consumer electronics, gaming, and AI to solve real-world surgical challenges.

Formed in 2013, the SOMED collaboration initially focused on developing and selling surgical endoscopes and related systems incorporating 4K resolution and 3D capabilities, releasing products with those capabilities in 2015 and 2017 respectively. In 2023, it expanded its product development to include gastrointestinal and respiratory endoscopy.

In 2021 Olympus announced the acquisition of Netherlands-headquartered Quest Photonic Devices, a specialist in fluorescence and multispectral imaging during cancer surgery. At the time Olympus noted this continued the company's pivot towards medical and industrial vision technologies, and specifically mentioned synergy between the Quest technology and the Olympus Visera Elite II iteration of its surgical imaging platform.

Visera Elite III is a strategic enabler for modern operating rooms and is a cornerstone of Olympus' "See Treat Connect" branded ecosystem, commented Darryl Rock from Olympus Corporation of the Americas.

"Its software-based architecture allows hospitals to scale capabilities while controlling capital investment and selectively activate advanced features like 3D and infrared imaging as needed," said Rock. "By seamlessly integrating data into electronic health records and IT systems, Visera Elite III may facilitate flexibility and clinical workflow and enable clinicians to focus on delivering high-quality care while optimizing their investment."