Three-dimensional printed temporal bone models: Are they more effective than virtual ones as anatomy education, surgical planning and training tools?

Abstract

It was our pleasure to read the article by Yamazaki et al. [1], who explored the value of virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) temporal bone models in anatomy education and preoperative planning. It was demonstrated that the participants of the study perceived those models as very useful in terms of depicting anatomy and facilitating surgical planning and intraoperative referencing. We agree with the authors that VR and MR have remarkable potential to provide important aid in temporal bone surgery.