Is the Use of VR in Surgery Limited to Training?

V irtual reality (VR) can help in medicine beyond training of HCPs! A review 1 published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health has explored the various uses of virtual reality and augmented reality (AR) in neurosurgery including training, neuronavigation, robotic surgery, analgesia, and rehabilitation. Let’s go over each of them and understand the pros and cons as well! 1. Neuronavigation VR is used to reconstruct a 3D model of a patient’s head which can be superimposed with real-time magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

This combination of VR and MRI images is helpful for intraoperative navigation during minimally invasive surgeries. This technique helps the surgeons to remove tumors with minimal surgical wounds and prevent injuring nearby tissues. 2 Besides, microscope-assisted, and endoscopy-assisted AR and VR are also used in 3D navigation. 3,4 2.…