The Efficacy of Immersive Virtual Reality Surgical Simulator Training for Pedicle Screw Placement: A Randomized Double-Blind Controlled Trial

Abstract

To assess efficacy of immersive virtual reality (VR) surgical simulator training for pedicle screw placement (PSP) in surgical graduate students. Sixteen inexperienced surgical graduate students were equally randomly assigned to an experimental group (VR group) and a control group (non-VR group). Students in the VR group performed PSP on the immersive VR surgical simulator, and students in the non-VR group were given a traditional introductory teaching session before a cadaver test. Eight adult fresh cadavers, 6 male and 2 female, were collected and randomly allocated to the 2 groups. Each group performed bilateral T11-L4 PSP on the cadavers independently, and the outcomes of PSP in terms of accuracy, success rate, and efficiency were assessed by computed tomography and compared between the 2 groups statistically. Accuracy rate of PSP in the VR group was 89.6% versus 60.4% in the non-VR group (P < 0.05), success rate was 100% versus 79.2% (P < 0.05), and mean time was 2.8 ± 1 minutes versus 4.9 ± 1 minutes (P < 0.05), all showing significant differences between the 2 groups. The immersive VR surgical simulator for PSP training model is superior to the traditional training model in terms of accuracy, success rate, and efficiency, showing potential in training new orthopedic spine surgeons.