CATARACT/ IOL

Virtual reality training improved capsulorrhexis performance

Residents that received virtual reality (VR) training to perform a capsulorrhexis did significantly better in wet labs than those residents that did not receive the same training.

In the January issue of Graefe’s Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology, Elisabeth M. Feudner, M.D., University of Tuebingen, Germany, and her colleagues randomly assigned 31 medical students and 32 ophthalmological residents to receive VR training or not.

Initially and after three weeks each participant performed three capsulorrhexis tasks in a porcine wet lab. In between, participants from the VR training groups completed two training trials on a surgical simulator. The VR training consisted of basic skill tasks and capsulorrhexis tasks of increasing difficulty, and preset performance goals had to be reached for each task.

Each wet-lab capsulorrhexis (n = 372) was evaluated with regard to five criteria (circularity, size, centering, time, tissue protection) using a predefined scoring system with a maximum overall score of 10 points (two per criterion).

Inter-observer agreement regarding the overall performance score was high (ICC = 0.91). Compared to control groups, VR-trained students and residents showed significant improvement in their median wet-lab capsulorrhexis overall performance score compared to controls (+3.67 vs. +0.33 points, P = 0.001 and +3.33 vs. ± 0.00 points, P < 0.0001, respectively). The capsulorrhexis performance of VR-trained students and residents was also more consistent with a lower standard deviation (SD) of scores compared to controls (SD: 1.3 vs. 2.1 and 1.2 vs. 1.7 points, respectively). Structured capsulorrhexis training on a surgical simulator to reach specific target criteria significantly improved wet-lab capsulorrhexis performance, they concluded.

Reported by: EyeWorld News Services