Jun J Pan1, Woojin Ahn2, Saurabh Dargar2, Tansel Halic3, Bai C Li2, Ganesh Sankaranarayanan2, Kurt Roberts4, Steven Schwaitzberg5, Suvranu De2. 1. State Key Laboratory of Virtual Reality Technology and Systems, Beihang University, Beijing, China; Center for Modeling, Simulation and Imaging in Medicine, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, USA. Electronic address: pan_junjun@hotmail.com. 2. Center for Modeling, Simulation and Imaging in Medicine, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, USA. 3. Computer Science Department, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, USA. 4. Gastrointestinal Surgery, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, New Heaven, USA. 5. Department of Surgery, Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) provides an emerging surgical technique which usually needs a long learning curve for surgeons. Virtual reality (VR) medical simulators with vision and haptic feedback can usually offer an efficient and cost-effective alternative without risk to the traditional training approaches. Under this motivation, we developed the first virtual reality simulator for transvaginal cholecystectomy in NOTES (VTEST™). METHODS: This VR-based surgical simulator aims to simulate the hybrid NOTES of cholecystectomy. We use a 6DOF haptic device and a tracking sensor to construct the core hardware component of simulator. For software, an innovative approach based on the inner-spheres is presented to deform the organs in real time. To handle the frequent collision between soft tissue and surgical instruments, an adaptive collision detection method based on GPU is designed and implemented. To give a realistic visual performance of gallbladder fat tissue removal by cautery hook, a multi-layer hexahedral model is presented to simulate the electric dissection of fat tissue. RESULTS: From the experimental results, trainees can operate in real time with high degree of stability and fidelity. A preliminary study was also performed to evaluate the realism and the usefulness of this hybrid NOTES simulator. CONCLUSIONS: This prototyped simulation system has been verified by surgeons through a pilot study. Some items of its visual performance and the utility were rated fairly high by the participants during testing. It exhibits the potential to improve the surgical skills of trainee and effectively shorten their learning curve.
BACKGROUND: Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) provides an emerging surgical technique which usually needs a long learning curve for surgeons. Virtual reality (VR) medical simulators with vision and haptic feedback can usually offer an efficient and cost-effective alternative without risk to the traditional training approaches. Under this motivation, we developed the first virtual reality simulator for transvaginal cholecystectomy in NOTES (VTEST™). METHODS: This VR-based surgical simulator aims to simulate the hybrid NOTES of cholecystectomy. We use a 6DOF haptic device and a tracking sensor to construct the core hardware component of simulator. For software, an innovative approach based on the inner-spheres is presented to deform the organs in real time. To handle the frequent collision between soft tissue and surgical instruments, an adaptive collision detection method based on GPU is designed and implemented. To give a realistic visual performance of gallbladder fat tissue removal by cautery hook, a multi-layer hexahedral model is presented to simulate the electric dissection of fat tissue. RESULTS: From the experimental results, trainees can operate in real time with high degree of stability and fidelity. A preliminary study was also performed to evaluate the realism and the usefulness of this hybrid NOTES simulator. CONCLUSIONS: This prototyped simulation system has been verified by surgeons through a pilot study. Some items of its visual performance and the utility were rated fairly high by the participants during testing. It exhibits the potential to improve the surgical skills of trainee and effectively shorten their learning curve.
Authors: Steven D Schwaitzberg; Denis Dorozhkin; Ganesh Sankaranarayanan; Kai Matthes; Daniel B Jones; Suvranu De Journal: Surg Endosc Date: 2015-04-04 Impact factor: 4.584
Authors: Ross S Coomber; Mikael H Sodergren; James Clark; Julian Teare; Guang-Zhong Yang; Ara Darzi Journal: World J Gastrointest Endosc Date: 2012-03-16