Head trauma commonly occurs on the battlefield. Resulting brain injuries and bleeding within the skull (intracranial hematoma) can elevate intracranial pressure, leading to complications and death if not treated. A craniotomy may be required for treatment when conservative measures are ineffective. This procedure involves removing a section of the skull in order to gain access to the brain to stop bleeding and to relieve intracranial pressure. Learning to perform this procedure safely requires considerable practice. A surgical simulator can augment current training methods so trainees become proficient before working on patients.
We are developing a Virtual Reality-based training simulator to practice the skills required to perform a craniotomy. A hand-immersive platform is used to generate a virtual environment with 3D stereoscopic visual and haptic feedback. Surgical tools are controlled with a haptic device. The workbench allows the visual and haptic workspaces to be co-registered to preserve hand-eye coordination for surgical training.
An important step in craniotomy involves cutting burr holes in the skull using powered surgical tools. We have simulated several bone cutting tools, such as bone drills and perforators, that are typically used in clinical practice for a craniotomy. Realistic 3D models have been created from real surgical tools and are controlled by a haptic device during their use.
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Project members (past and present) |
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Publications |
"Real-time volumetric haptic and visual burr hole simulation" Eric Acosta, Alan Liu. IEEE Virtual Reality 2007, pp. 247-250.
"Real-time interactions and synchronization of voxel-based collaborative virtual environments" Eric Acosta, Alan Liu. IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces, 2007, pp. 131-137.
"Burr hole Simulation for an Intracranial Hematoma Simulator" Eric Acosta, Alan Liu, Rocco Armonda, Mike Fiorill,Randy Haluck, Carol Lake, Gilbert Muniz, and Mark Bowyer. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 2007, vol. 125, pp. 1-6.
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Acknowledgements |
We would like to thank Penny Christian from Medtronic and Jason Martin from Stryker for the loan of surgical tools used as a basis for creating their virtual counterparts.
This work is supported by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command under Contract No. W81WH-05-C-0142. The views, opinions and/or findings contained in this report are those of the author(s) and should not be construed as an official Department of the Army position, policy or decision unless so designated by other documentation.
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