The effect of virtual reality on temporal bone anatomy evaluation and performance

PURPOSE: There is only limited data on the application of virtual reality (VR) for the evaluation of temporal bone anatomy. The aim of the present study was to compare the VR environment to traditional cross-sectional viewing of computed tomography images in a simulated preoperative planning setting in novice and expert surgeons. METHODS: A novice (n = 5) and an expert group (n = 5), based on their otosurgery experience, were created. The participants were asked to identify 24 anatomical landmarks, perform 11 distance measurements between surgically relevant anatomical structures and 10 fiducial markers on five cadaver temporal bones in both VR environment and cross-sectional viewings in PACS interface. The data on performance time and user-experience (i.e., subjective validation) were collected. RESULTS: The novice group made significantly more errors (p < 0.001) and with significantly longer performance time (p = 0.001) in cross-sectional viewing than the expert group. In the VR environment, there was no significant differences (errors and time) between the groups. The performance of novices improved faster in the VR. The novices showed significantly faster task performance (p = 0.003) and a trend towards fewer errors (p = 0.054) in VR compared to cross-sectional viewing. No such difference between the methods were observed in the expert group. The mean overall scores of user-experience were significantly higher for VR than cross-sectional viewing in both groups (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: In the VR environment, novices performed the anatomical evaluation of temporal bone faster and with fewer errors than in the traditional cross-sectional viewing, which supports its efficiency for the evaluation of complex anatomy. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00405-021-07183-9.