Article
VR-based training of craniotomy for intracranial aneurysm surgery
Virtuelle Wirklichkeit in der neurochirurgischen Ausbildung bei der Platzierung der Kraniotomie
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Published: | May 25, 2022 |
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Outline
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Objective: The microsurgical treatment of intracranial aneurysms poses a major challenge in the field of vascular neurosurgery. One important step involves an appropriate positioning of the patient’s head and the proper placement of the craniotomy in dependence of aneurysm location. Here, we present a VR-based training model as an effective tool for training.
Methods: We designed and implemented an immersive VR access simulation, where the user is surrounded by a virtual operating room, including medical equipment and virtual staff. The patient's head can be positioned via hand rotation and an arbitrary craniotomy contour can be drawn. The chosen access can be evaluated by exposing the aneurysm using a microscopic view.
Results: The evaluation of the simulation took place in three stages: testing the simulation using the think-aloud method, conducting a survey and examining the precision of drawing the contour. Although there are differences between the virtual interactions and their counterparts in reality, the participants liked the immersion and felt present in the operating room. The calculated surface dice similarity coefficient, Hausdorff distance and feedback of the participants show that the difficulty of drawing the craniotomy is appropriate.
Conclusion: The presented training simulation for head positioning and access planning benefits from the immersive environment. Thus, it is an appropriate training for novice neurosurgeons and medical students with the goal to improve anatomical understanding and to become aware of the importance of the right craniotomy hole.