The Role of Augmented Reality in the Next Phase of Surgical Education

Abstract

Concomitant with such a shift toward competency-based curricula, there has been increasing adoption of surgical simulation coupled with virtual, mixed, and augmented reality. These technologies have become more commonplace across multiple surgical disciplines, in domains such as preoperative planning, surgical education, and intraoperative navigation. However, there is a relative paucity of literature pertaining to the application of this technology to plastic surgery education. This review outlines the advantages of mixed and augmented reality in the pursuit of an ideal simulation environment, their benefits for the education of plastic surgery trainees, and their role in standardized assessments. In addition, we offer practical solutions to commonly encountered problems with this technology. Augmented reality has tremendous untapped potential in the next phase of plastic surgery education, and we outline steps toward broader implementation to enhance the learning environment for our trainees and to improve patient outcomes.

Fig. 1.

Pedicle screw placement into a spine model using an augmented reality overlay to demonstrate ideal and actual trajectories of the screw.

Fig. 2.

Procedural sequence of K-wire fixation task. A, Unreduced Bennett’s fracture. Fracture fragments depicted in blue. B, Reduced Bennett’s fracture. Fracture fragments depicted in blue. C, Starting point for K-wire fixation task. D, K-wire depicted shortly after initiation of task. E, Completed K-wire fixation task with appropriate reduction of fracture fragments.