The efficacy of immersive virtual reality surgical simulator training for pedicle screw placement: a randomized double-blind controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE

To verify whether the pedicle screw placement (PSP) skills of young surgeons receiving immersive virtual reality surgical simulator (IVRSS) training could be improved effectively and whether the IVRSS-PSP training mode could produce a real clinical value in clinical surgery.

METHODS

Twenty-four young surgeons were equally randomized to a VR group and a NON-VR group. Participants in VR group received IVRSS-PSP training, and those in NON-VR group used the conventional model of observing a spinal model first and then watching a teaching video of spinal surgery for 40 minutes x five. The nailing outcome of the participants before and after training was evaluated by statistical analysis in both groups.

RESULTS

Post-training data analysis showed that the success rate and accuracy rate of screw placement in VR group and NON-VR group were 82.9% and 69.6% vs. 74.2% and 55.4%, respectively, showing statistically significant differences between the two groups by chi-square test (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

The present study demonstrated that IVRSS-PSP was helpful to improve the success rate of PSP for young surgeons, and may provide valuable reference for PSP training of young surgeons. In addition, our study also showed a promising potential of the VR technology in surgical simulation training.