Effectiveness of Immersive Virtual Reality in Surgical Training - A Randomized Control Trial

Publication date: Available online 13 October 2017
Source:Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
Author(s): Yeshwanth Pulijala, Minhua Ma, Matthew Pears, David Peebles, Ashraf Ayoub
IntroductionThe surgical training methods are evolving with technological advancements including the application of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). Yet, twenty-eight to forty percent of novice residents are not confident in performing a major surgical procedure. VR Surgery, an immersive virtual reality (iVR) experience was developed using Oculus Rift and Leap Motion devices to address this challenge. It is a multi-sensory, holistic surgical training application, that demonstrates a maxillofacial surgical technique, Le Fort I osteotomy.ObjectiveThe main objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of VR Surgery on the self-confidence and the knowledge of surgical residents.DesignA multisite, single-blinded, parallel, randomised controlled trial (RCT) was performed. The participants were novice surgical residents with a limited experience in performing the Le Fort I osteotomy. The primary outcome measures were the self- assessment scores of trainee's confidence on a Likert scale and objective assessment of the cognitive skills. Ninety-five residents from seven dental schools took part in the RCT. The participants were randomly divided into a study group n=51, and a control group n=44. Participants in the study group used the VR Surgery application on an Oculus Rift with Leap Motion device. The control group participants used similar content in a standard PowerPoint presentation on a laptop. A repeated measures multivariate ANOVA was applied to the data to assess the overall impact of the intervention on the confidence of residents.ResultsThe study group participants showed a significantly higher perceived self-confidence levels compared to those in the control group (p=0.034, α=0.05). Novices in the first year of their training showed the highest improvement in their confidence, compared to those in the second and third year.ConclusioniVR experiences improve the knowledge and self-confidence of the surgical residents.



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