Virtual surgery

Virtual surgery refers to a virtual reality simulation of surgical procedures. These simulations are used to practice often dangerous surgical procedures without the need for an actual patient. The virtual reality simulation is used as an analog for the actual surgery where doctors can practice on a virtual patient before performing the surgery. Types of surgeries commonly simulated are laparoscopic surgery where the surgeon cannot physically see the operation being performed. Virtual surgery uses a computer screen displaying a 3-dimensional graphic of the organs being operated on. Various surgical tools or gloves are connected to motion sensors and haptic or tactile feedback mechanisms where the user can physically feel the difference in simulated tissue and organs. The user can "perform surgery" upon the virtual organs by manipulating the tools, which are also displayed on the screen as the user moves them, and the tools also provide force-feedback and collision detection to indicate to the user when they are pushing on or moving some organs or tissue. By inputting data from computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans the patient can be replicated in the virtual environment. The advantages of this type of simulation is surgeons can practice operations multiple time with out the use of cadavers or animals. Surgery simulation would give an objective evaluation of a surgeon dexterity combined with a more intensive training activity. It would allow the simulation of rare pathological cases and could simulate the interaction with several organs. Complications can be introduced during the surgery testing the user on real world scenarios. Also virtually trained students are more proficient and make fewer errors, and thus are better prepared to assist during surgery.

HistoryFlight simulators have been a milestone in the training and evaluation of pilots.In analogy to this development the systems presented here can also bedescribed as flight simulators for surgeons.

External links

* [http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1999/touchlabs.html MIT Touch lab research spans basic science, virtual reality]
* [http://cs.millersville.edu/~webster/haptics/cgw.pdf Getting the Feel of Virtual Surgery (pdf)]
* [http://www.ercim.org/publication/Ercim_News/enw29/delingette.html]
* [http://www.theage.com.au/]