Mixed Reality in the Operating Room: A Systematic Review.

Area of Science:

• Medical Technology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Surgical Innovation

Background:

• Mixed Reality (MR) integrates digital information with the physical world, offering unique visualization and interaction capabilities.
• Its application in medicine, particularly in operating rooms, is growing due to potential benefits for information access and hand-free operation.
• Voice control, gestures, and iris movement enhance MR's utility in demanding surgical environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review significant research on Mixed Reality in the operating room over the past five years.
• To identify current trends, use cases, applications, and limitations of MR in surgical settings.
• To understand the potential impact and challenges of MR integration in surgical practice.

Main Methods:

• A systematic review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines.
• Research questions were formulated using the PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome) framework.
• Analysis focused on studies published within the last five years concerning MR in operating rooms.

Main Results:

• Mixed Reality can simplify learning curves and facilitate surgical processes, showing remarkable potential when implemented effectively.
• Identified trends include enhanced information visualization and intuitive control mechanisms (voice, gesture, iris).
• Key applications span surgical training, pre-operative planning, and intra-operative guidance.

Conclusions:

• Mixed Reality presents significant benefits for surgical practice, including improved learning and procedural efficiency.
• Challenges to widespread adoption include technical complexity, high equipment costs, and steep learning curves.
• Further research is needed to address usability, ergonomic issues, limited field of view, battery life, and bias in statistical analyses for robust clinical integration.