gms | German Medical Science

Objective: Introducing cranial neuronavigation in 1986 by D. Roberts, Neurosurgery was the first discipline using augmented reality in routine daily work. In 2020 the brainlab company launched a pattern recognition software, converting regular MRI into a virtual brain model which can be presented via AR for presurgical planning. Three years ago, our interdisciplinary research group started to develop AR and VR tools for education and treatment in the medical field.

Methods: Our applications were developed for medical, therapeutic and psychological purposes. The first project was a VR tool for students to train them in surgical scrubbing before entering a real OR. Subsequently, we created a VR stoma training tool for both patients and relatives. The latest applications are AR tools, one for auscultation of the lung and heart resembling the well known SAM skillslab trainer, the other projects additional anatomical information on the blood collecting skillslab arm model. The VR application for addictive misbehavior is basing on approach-avoidance-tasks (AAT). For dementia care a memory game with pictures from patient's own life in combination with self-selected music pieces helps to reduce dementia-related memory loss. Our AR tool for arachnophobia therapy projects a spider on the hand of the patient.

Results: AR applications are preferable, because they do not cause the so-called motion sickness, as the real surroundings are still visible. The surgical scrubb software was classified as very useful by two student groups, one using it, before entering the real OR first time, the controll group was trained without this task. Cigarette consumption was significantly reduced in a randomized trial (RCT) with 108 participants using the approach-avoidance-task in six sessions within two weeks. 20% had stopped smoking completely and a large proportion had reduced their consumption. The other mentioned tools are currently in trial.

Conclusion: Medical AR and VR applications rapidly will become part of our daily work. The current applications help students, patients and doctors to increase the success of training and therapy, reduce the fear of treatments and interventions and improve their acceptance. Cost intensive skillslab models might be replaced by cheaper virtual models. In the near future, we expect the launch of surgical training tools simulating neurosurgical approaches and techniques.