Dr. Brian Fiani is the First Neurosurgeon to Host a Virtual Reality Spine Surgery Education Session within the Metaverse

January 2, 2023 /OrthoSpineInformation/ – On December 2022, historical past was made by Dr. Brian Fiani when he hosted a digital actuality backbone surgical procedure seminar within the Metaverse for 50 backbone surgeons from 10 completely different international locations. The demonstration was an enormous success. Dr. Fiani was one of many very first neurosurgeons to publish on digital actuality when he printed his paper “Virtual Reality in Neurosurgery: “Can You See It?”-A Evaluation of the Present Functions and Future Potential” in early 2020, a paper with greater than 20,000 views and cited over 1600 instances to-date. Since then, he has continued to be a pioneer within the evolution of surgical know-how and an advocate for its use within the working room. Dr. Fiani has all the time been intrigued by the facility of innovation and what it gives surgeons and sufferers. As a boy, he was a artistic thinker developing with new innovations and he credit this ardour as one in all his motivations for pursuing backbone surgical procedure. He has labored with a number of corporations over time to develop software program and {hardware} parts for intraoperative know-how that has been breaking obstacles within the working room and increasing capabilities. Already a patent holder, Dr. Fiani’s final purpose with surgical know-how is to enhance affected person care within the working room.

Dr. Fiani says that know-how and innovation are consistently evolving and new developments preserve the modernization of medication fascinating. To him, digital actuality is the assembly place of creativity and science. Virtual actuality provides members the flexibility to do issues that we can not do in the actual world. Among the particular surgical educating options embody visualizing 3-dimentional reconstructions pre-operatively, surgical planning, surgical simulations, and post-operative evaluation all whereas decentralizing surgical schooling in order that members may be wherever on this planet at that exact time.

The digital actuality seminar was held on the New York Metropolis Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery (NYC-MISS) Symposium in New York Metropolis, New York, USA on December 15-17, 2022. In the course of the 2-day lesson plan, members activated headsets that produced 3-dimentional visualization capabilities and hand controls for limitless motion and motion options.

50 backbone surgeons from 10 completely different international locations joined! Over 30 of the world’s masters in backbone surgical procedure joined within the Metaverse and one other 20 backbone surgeons selected to observe with out headsets as a result of the digital actuality world was concurrently broadcasted into the actual world auditorium screens by one of many representatives inside the Metaverse.

In preparation, Dr. Fiani labored with an organization named Non Nocere from Germany. The corporate good points its identify from the phrase “primum non nocere” which in Latin means “first, do no harm”. They shipped all of the state-of-the-art headsets and hand controls to New York Metropolis for the occasion. They in a single day mailed him a headset and controls to follow one week earlier than the occasion. This system technicians and gross sales representatives from Germany and Turkey skilled him and helped him follow utilizing the Metaverse options for a number of days. It was proof of product that they met within the Metaverse from three completely different international locations on the similar time to perform a purpose. The corporate made the method very user-friendly for him. They downloaded preoperative and postoperative imaging, in addition to, his slideshow shows from 4 surgical instances. The 4 surgical procedures had been categorized as degenerative backbone surgical procedure, spinal tumor surgical procedure, deformity surgical procedure, and revision surgical procedure. Inside the few days of preparation, he turned comfy with the Metaverse surgical auditorium which features as a lecture corridor and digital anatomy lab and likewise the digital actuality working room which features as a surgical simulator lab.

Dr. Fiani commented that the system was very intuitive and after a couple of minutes you’re feeling at one with the digital actuality world and its ongoings. The hand controls make maneuvering easy and the actions give haptic suggestions. The system is instantaneously responsive with out glitch or delay.

Dr. Fiani says that digital actuality is reworking backbone surgical procedure schooling. In the course of the Covid-19 pandemic and even afterwards, folks had been gathering on Zoom as a platform for conferences. He believes digital actuality is the pure evolution for enhancing engagement by creating an area for discussions and interplay. Decentralizing surgical schooling permits worldwide participation which is especially vital within the fields of medication and surgical procedure. The digital actuality Metaverse permits surgeons to simulate surgical procedures earlier than performing them.

Virtual actuality permits the presenter and members to be engaged in a single place whereas logging on from wherever on this planet internationally. Reconstructed fashions based mostly on affected person imaging permits higher visualization of simulated backbone fashions and follow surgical procedures beforehand. Surgical simulation may help supplied repetitious coaching in a secure surroundings to create a faster extra environment friendly workflow in the actual world for youthful surgeons and decrease studying curves with new merchandise for skilled surgeons.

The digital actuality periods occurred over two days. On the primary day, the members gathered within the real-world auditorium right here in New York Metropolis and logged on with their headsets and hand controls and realized the fundamentals of maneuvering to turn into comfy with the Metaverse. Two technicians and gross sales representatives had been current within the auditorium room to help members. One software program programmer was contained in the Metaverse to help there. He introduced two case shows, every with an elaborate slideshow presentation that was downloaded into the Metaverse and projected onto what would look like a 100 foot display screen by real-world estimation. Pre-operative imaging was proven together with xrays, CT scans, and MRI scans with scrolling functionality. One case was cervical spondylotic myelopathy and one was lumbar deformity. The software program constructed giant 30 foot fashions utilizing preoperative imaging. The imaging was additionally superimposed onto the mannequin and we used options to select-in or select-out components of the anatomy to higher view what was behind or round it, for instance, eradicating the bone to see the compression on the spinal twine. These two instances had been introduced in order that members might carry out their desired surgical plan within the real-world cadaver lab the next morning. On the second day, members had been now extra comfy with the Metaverse which allowed glorious tutorial dialogue to happen. He hosted 2 extra case shows with slideshow shows together with intraoperative footage. The constructed pre-op mannequin displayed the tumor with nice specificity and the postop mannequin displayed its resection and placement on instrumentation for our tumor case. The revision surgical procedure case demonstrated the digital actuality potential to preoperatively measure screw and rod sizes and evaluate to our postoperative mannequin constructed from imaging.

The members had been in awe. The world’s greatest backbone surgeons of master-class degree had been having the time of their lives. The members loved the audio-visual high quality with haptic suggestions, the life-like backbone anatomy fashions, the projection of imported CT and MRI scans, and the surgical simulation options. The surgeons had been like kids discovering new toys on Christmas morning. The location of smiles, the sound of laughter, and the looks of curiosity crammed the auditorium.

Dr. Fiani is worked up about the way forward for digital actuality (VR) and augmented actuality (AR) for backbone surgical procedure. VR will proceed to be extra life-like with computer-brain synchronizing and the headsets will turn into lighter to the purpose the place they turn into glasses and possibly even contact lens. VR hand controls will doubtless turn into gloves for extra reasonable actions and management to simulate actions and surgical simulations. With reference to AR, headsets will even turn into lighter and smaller and shift to glasses or contact lens. Extra corporations will probably be created and competitors will develop. On the subject of the long run Dr. Fiani says “in the very near future, quite possibly in the year 2023, I will be hosting the first annual virtual reality spine surgery conference. Stay tuned, planning has already begun.”

Contact
Dr. Brian Fiani
bwv9004@med.cornell.edu