Virtual Reality Modeling for Case-Specific Presurgical Discussions in Cerebrovascular Neurosurgery

Taku Sugiyama, MD, PhD, Tod Clapp, PhD, Jordan Nelson, BS, Chad Eitel, BS, Hiroaki Motegi, MD, PhD, Naoki Nakayama, MD, PhD, Tsukasa Sasaki, RT, Kikutaro Tokairin, MD, PhD, Masaki Ito, MD, PhD, Ken Kazumata, MD, PhD, Kiyohiro Houkin, MD, PhD

Click here to read the peer-reviewed article as published in Operative Neurosurgery (Oxford Academic).

OBJECTIVE:

To investigate if and how immersive VR aids pre-surgical discussions of cerebrovascular surgery.

RESULTS:

• The VR sessions effectively enhanced surgeons’ understanding of patient-specific anatomy in the majority of cases (83.3%)
• The VR sessions effectively improved the decision-making process regarding minor surgical techniques in 61.1% of cases and even aided surgeons in making critical surgical decisions about cases involving complex and challenging anatomy
• Immersive 3D VR modeling increased surgeons’ understanding of patient-specific anatomy and improved surgical strategy in certain cases involving challenging anatomy