Virtual reality training system for minimally invasive surgery of inguinal hernia

A new VR training system for minimally invasive surgery of inguinal hernia is presented. Our system is designed to develop and train the surgeon's skills to navigate under a laparoscopic view in an anatomic environment. The system is based on a spatial anatomical model developed from the Visible Human dataset by means of interactive and manual segmentation and graphic modeling. We use the VOXEL-MAN visualization environment to achieve photo-realistic quality anatomical and laparoscopic views. The training system contains a set of pre-calculated QuickTime VR scenes which allow exploration of the surgical situs from a laparoscopic as well as a non-laparoscopic perspective by mouse movement. A knowledge base provides the possibility to interrogate and annotate anatomical structures in all views by mouse click. We expect that this simulation, which runs on standard PCs, will substantially enhance the quality of training and education in minimally invasive surgery.