Virtual reality in surgical arthroscopic training.

Arthroscopy has become an irreplaceble method in diagnostics. The arthroscope, with optics and light source, and the exploratory probe are inserted into the knee joint through two small incisions underneath the patella. Currently, the skills required for arthroscopy are taught through hands-on clinical experience. Therefore, the Fraunhofer-Institut fuer Graphische Datenverarbeitung in Darmstadt, in cooperation with the Berufsgenossenschaftliche Unfallklinik Frankfurt am Main, developed a highly interactive medical training system for arthroscopy through computer graphics and virtual reality (VR) techniques. Two main issues are addressed: the three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction process and the 3-D interaction. The goal of the reconstruction process is to obtain a realistic representation of the knee joint derived from a magnetic resonance image sequence suitable for computer simulation. Moreover, the 3-D interaction of the training system must stimulate real arthroscopy, providing an intuitive handling of the instruments.