%0 Journal Article
%T A Virtual Reality Environment to Visualize Three
%A Angelo Vanzulli
%A Francesco Rizzetto
%A Gianluca Sampogna
%A Marco Elli
%A Maurizio Gallieni
%A Maurizio Vertemati
%A Simone Cassin
%J Surgical Innovation
%@ 1553-3514
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1553350618822860
%X Introduction. With the availability of low-cost head-mounted displays (HMDs), virtual reality environments (VREs) are increasingly being used in medicine for teaching and clinical purposes. Our aim was to develop an interactive, user-friendly VRE for tridimensional visualization of patient-specific organs, establishing a workflow to transfer 3-dimensional (3D) models from imaging datasets to our immersive VRE. Materials and Methods. This original VRE model was built using open-source software and a mobile HMD, Samsung Gear VR. For its validation, we enrolled 33 volunteers: morphologists (n = 11), trainee surgeons (n = 15), and expert surgeons (n = 7). They tried our VRE and then filled in an original 5-point Likert-type scale 6-item questionnaire, considering the following parameters: ease of use, anatomy comprehension compared with 2D radiological imaging, explanation of anatomical variations, explanation of surgical procedures, preoperative planning, and experience of gastrointestinal/neurological disorders. Results in the 3 groups were statistically compared using analysis of variance. Results. Using cross-sectional medical imaging, the developed VRE allowed to visualize a 3D patient-specific abdominal scene in 1 hour. Overall, the 6 items were evaluated positively by all groups; only anatomy comprehension was statistically significant different among the 3 groups. Conclusions. Our approach, based on open-source software and mobile hardware, proved to be a valid and well-appreciated system to visualize 3D patient-specific models, paving the way for a potential new tool for teaching and preoperative planning
%K virtual reality
%K anatomy
%K training
%K mobile
%K head-mounted display
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1553350618822860