Enhancing neurosurgical endoscopy with the use of 'virtual reality' headgear.

Widespread use of neurosurgical endoscopy has been hampered by the necessity of looking up from the surgical field to view the endoscopic image on a video monitor. Here is demonstrated a simple, lightweight headpiece with a small, built-in video monitor that reflects the video image to the dominant eye, thus allowing the operator to continuously observe the surgical field either via peripheral vision or via the non-dominant eye. Successful use of the device is documented here in a minimally invasive fenestration of an arachnoid cyst into the lateral ventricle via a flexible endoscopic procedure.