New Trends in Surgical Education and Mentoring by Immersive Virtual Reality: An Innovative Tool for Patient’s Safety

Surgical training has always been challenging as it requires anatomy knowledge, technical ability, and proficiency in many psychomotor, cognitive, and problem-solving skills. In recent times the dropout of candidates, the shortage of economic resources, and the restrictive working hours have raised the bar even higher. New methods have been explored to overcome these issues, with a special interest in immersive virtual reality (IVR), a technology recently introduced in surgery that allows the user to dive into a completely virtual world and interact with it. Thanks to its engaging experience, IVR seems to improve surgical skills and facilitate exposure to complex procedures. On the other hand, the possibility to freely navigate a high-fidelity reconstruction of the patient’s anatomy can help expert surgeons as well, easing surgical planning and improving the accuracy and safety of surgery. In this chapter, historical background and technical overview of IVR are provided, followed by a review of the results obtained so far from the application of this technology in surgical education and preoperative planning. Drawbacks and limitations of IVR are discussed as well. In the final section, the Authors present their experience in developing an IVR tool and implementing it in various educational and surgical activities.