Virtual and Augmented Reality in Ventriculostomy: A Systematic Review.

Area of Science:

• Neurosurgery
• Medical Technology
• Surgical Innovation

Background:

• Ventriculostomy is a common neurosurgical procedure to drain excess cerebrospinal fluid.
• Traditional freehand techniques have a high rate of catheter misplacement.
• Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) present novel solutions for improved accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To comprehensively review existing literature on VR and AR applications in ventriculostomy.
• To analyze the diverse applications, limitations, and future directions of these technologies.
• To categorize VR and AR systems based on data, visualization, and view.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search of Web of Science and PubMed databases.
• Inclusion of 29 relevant papers focusing on VR/AR in ventriculostomy.
• Exclusion of non-English records, review papers, and unrelated studies.

Main Results:

• VR and AR systems are categorized by data, visualization, and view (Data, Visualization and View taxonomy).
• Analysis of data utilized, visualizations, virtual/augmented environments, surgical scenarios, and validation metrics.
• Discussion of surgical applications and evaluation methods for VR/AR in ventriculostomy.

Conclusions:

• VR and AR technologies show significant potential to enhance ventriculostomy accuracy and outcomes.
• Identified challenges in implementation require further research and development.
• Future directions focus on addressing limitations and advancing VR/AR integration in neurosurgery.