Author(s)

G. Aloisio, L. T. De Paolis, A. De Mauro & A. Zuccalà

Abstract

Virtual reality based surgical simulators can provide a new method for apprenticeship which is at least as efficient as the traditional one and which could reduce the length of training. It is very important to carry out the same surgical procedure on a variety of different case studies that correspond to several virtual patients, each of them exhibiting a specific difficulty depending on the different anatomy or pathology. In order to obtain a realistic simulation it is necessary to use a specific haptic device which is able to replicate the force feedback sensations relating to the interaction in the virtual environment on the user. The aim of this paper is to present a virtual surgical simulator to perform training on different cases of a specific surgical procedure; the building of the virtual environment is based on images of real patients and a Web Portal is used to search a specific pathologies or anatomic structures; this information are included in the metadata associated with the virtual environment. Keywords: virtual reality, surgical training simulator, web services, web portal, metadata, haptic interface. 1 Introduction Simulators have been used in aviation, nuclear power, military flight operations and other industries as a training tool and method to assess performance; recently the use of simulation in medicine has increased markedly due to greater awareness of the importance of patient safety. In medical training, simulators can provide a substitute for actual patients and they improve patient safety by allowing physicians to become better trained without putting patients at risk. This training method presents several Surgical training system with a Web Portal for

Keywords

virtual reality, surgical training simulator, web services, web portal, metadata, haptic interface.