Healthcare metaverse in surgery: scoping review

The metaverse is an emerging concept in surgery, with much interest in its highly immersive and interactive virtual environment. Despite the growing interest and importance in healthcare, the metaverse is still very much in its early phase of evolution and adoption in surgery, with debate on its definition and components. This scoping review provides a summary of the evidence and current understanding for the use of the metaverse in surgery.

Embase and MEDLINE were searched using scoping review methodology with a systematic search strategy, identifying any study examining the role of the metaverse in surgery without time limitation. After data extraction, a narrative synthesis was conducted to identify the components of the metaverse employed within surgery and the domains in which they were applied.

Of 97 articles found through the initial search, 15 studies were eligible for inclusion. Most of the studies were expert opinion pieces (46.6%), urology was the most common specialty (33.3%), and all studies were published after 2020. Studies were widely heterogeneous in study design and outcomes varied. The surgical metaverse was used across four main domains: education (53%), training (80%), operations (67%), and surgical care (53%).

Surgery is rapidly moving towards the age of the metaverse. There is great potential; however, evidence is lacking on its effectiveness and there are risks associated with its implementation. Institutions must learn how to understand and safely adopt the metaverse into their domains of education, training, operations, and surgical care.