Abstract
Purpose
Develop measures to differentiate between experienced and inexperienced neurosurgeons in a virtual reality brain surgery simulator environment.
Methods
Medical students (\(n=71\)) and neurosurgery residents (\(n=12\)) completed four simulated Glioblastoma multiforme resections. Simulated surgeries took place over four days with intermittent spacing in between (average time between surgeries of 4.77 \(\pm \) 0.73 days). The volume of tumor removed (cc), volume of healthy brain removed (cc), and instrument path length (mm) were recorded. Additionally, surgical effectiveness (% tumor removed divided by % healthy brain removed) and efficiency (% tumor removed divided by instrument movement in mm) were calculated. Performance was compared (1) between groups, and (2) for each participant over time to assess the learning curve. In addition, the effect of real-time instruction (“coaching”) was assessed with a randomly selected group of medical students.
Results
Neurosurgery residents removed less healthy brain, were more effective in removing tumor and sparing healthy brain tissue, required less instrument movement, and were more efficient in removing tumor tissue than medical students. Medical students approached the resident level of performance over serial sessions. Coached medical students showed more conservative surgical behavior, removing both less tumor and less healthy brain. In sum, neurosurgery residents removed more tumor, removed less healthy brain, and required less instrument movement than medical students. Coaching modified medical student performance.
Conclusions
Virtual Reality brain surgery can differentiate operators based on both recent and long-term experience and may be useful in the acquisition and assessment of neurosurgical skills. Coaching alters the learning curve of naïve inexperienced individuals.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the NRC for logistical support, Steven Philemond for coaching participants in the study, and Dr. Errol Gordon and Dr. E. J. Fernandez for their assistance with experimental design, the medical students and neurosurgery residents of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai for their participation in our study, and all those who contributed to the study or manuscript preparation. Zachary Lorsch and Michael Chary are supported by the Medical Scientist Training Program of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (NIH Grant # T32 GM 007280).
Conflict of interest
Terrell Holloway, Zachary Lorsch, Michael Chary, Stanislaw Sobotka, Maximilian Moore, Anthony Costa, and Rolando Del Maestro report no Conflicts of Interest. As stated in the disclosures, Dr. Joshua Bederson, is part of the Neurotouch Consortium advisory board without compensation.
Ethical standard All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed consent Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. The institutional review board (IRB) of Mount Sinai Hospital determined that this study was exempt from IRB review.
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Terrell Holloway and Zachary S Lorsch have contributed equally to this work.
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Video demonstration of simulated GBM resection using NeuroTouch surgical simulator. Outline of tools used %during virtual GBM resection; suction utilized by the aspirator in right hand (RH) and cauterization utilized by the %bipolar in left hand (LH)
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Holloway, T., Lorsch, Z.S., Chary, M.A. et al. Operator experience determines performance in a simulated computer-based brain tumor resection task. Int J CARS 10, 1853–1862 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-015-1160-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-015-1160-y