Design and implementation of brain surgery bipolar electrocautery simulator using haptic technology

TL;DR

This paper presents a virtual reality haptic simulator for brain surgery bipolar electrocautery, demonstrating its effectiveness in training by showing improved error reduction and the influence of gaming experience on surgical skills.

Contribution

The study develops a realistic brain surgery simulator using haptic technology and evaluates its impact on learning and skill improvement, highlighting the role of gaming experience.

Findings

5% reduction in force error during training

Gamer group performed significantly better (p=0.0001)

Haptic simulator enhances surgical training effectiveness

Abstract

Surgical simulators have been widely used in training and evaluation of physicians and surgeons. Virtual reality augmented with haptic technology has made it feasible to develop more realistic surgical simulators. In this context, we set out to design and develop a brain surgery bipolar electrocautery simulator using haptic technology. A 3D model of brain tissue was generated based on a brain craniotomy image. Bipolar forceps were also modeled to visually assimilate real forceps. An experiment was developed to assess the learning process of the participants. In this experiment, the volunteers were asked to cauterize a large blood vessel in the brain while minimizing the damage done to the brain tissue. The experiment was performed on 20 volunteers, and statistical analysis was conducted on the learning process and error reduction during the surgery. Next, the volunteers were divided into gamer and non gamer groups. The analysis of the volunteers operation demonstrated that, on average, there was a 5 percent reduction in the percentage of applied force error. It was also shown that the results achieved by the gamer and non gamer group has significant difference with a p value of 0.0001. So, playing computer games would increase hand control, focus, and reflex and positively affect surgery skills.