Supporting skill acquisition in cochlear implant surgery through virtual reality simulation

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of a virtual reality (VR) temporal bone simulator in training cochlear implant surgery.

Methods: We compared the performance of 12 otolaryngology registrars conducting simulated cochlear implant surgery before (pre-test) and after (post-tests) receiving training on a VR temporal bone surgery simulator with automated performance feedback. The post-test tasks were two temporal bones, one that was a mirror image of the temporal bone used as a pre-test and the other, a novel temporal bone. Participant performances were assessed by an otologist with a validated cochlear implant competency assessment tool. Structural damage was derived from an automatically generated simulator metric and compared between time points.

Results: Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed that there was a significant improvement with a large effect size in the total performance scores between the pre-test (PT) and both the first and second post-tests (PT1, PT2) (PT-PT1: P = 0.007, r = 0.78, PT-PT2: P = 0.005, r = 0.82).

Conclusion: The results of the study indicate that VR simulation with automated guidance can effectively be used to train surgeons in training complex temporal bone surgeries such as cochlear implantation.

Keywords:

• Virtual reality
• ENT
• Simulation
• Surgery
• Training
• Cochlear implant
• Cochleostomy
• Skill aquisition

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage Project Grant, in which Cochlear Ltd. is a partner.

Disclaimer statement

Contributors None.

Funding None.

Conflicts of interest None.

Ethics approval None.

ORCID

Bridget Copson http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7307-8229