Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 23, 2026
The Microscopic Transcanal Approach in Stapes Surgery Revisited
Published on: February 16, 2022
Importance of Stereoscopy in Haptic Training of Novice Temporal Bone Surgery
Bertram Unger1, Bryan Tordon1, Justyn Pisa2
1Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba.
Unlabelled:
We investigate the effects of stereoscopic simulation on novice trainee surgical performance.
Methods:
20 first year medical students were randomized into a stereo or non-stereo group. Each participant viewed a 13 minute instructional video and then performed 3 mastoidectomy procedures with an in-house haptic temporal bone simulation, using a 3D-capable display with either active (stereo) or inactive (non-stero) shutter glasses. Following training, participants performed an actual mastoidectomy on a single 3D-printed bone model. The printed models were evaluated by 3 blinded neurotologic surgeons using a 7 point grading system.
Results:
Two-tailed t-tests showed no significant difference in overall performance (mean score across test categories over all subjects) between stereo (M=3.8, SD=1.1) and non-stereo (M=4.4, SD=1.5) conditions (p=0.163). No significant differences existed in any of the assessed sub-domains.
Conclusions:
The addition of stereo-vision to haptic training may not affect temporal bone surgical skill acquisition in novice users.
