VR Surgery: Interactive virtual reality application for training oral and maxillofacial surgeons using Oculus Rift and Leap Motion

VR Surgery is an immersive virtual reality operating room experience for trainee surgeons in oral and maxillofacial surgery maxillofacial surgery. Using a combination of Oculus Rift head-mounted display, Leap Motion tracking devices, high-resolution stereoscopic 3D videos and 360-degree videos, this application allows a trainee to virtually participate in a surgical procedure and interact with the patient’s anatomy. VR Surgery is highly useful for surgical trainees as a visualisation aid and for senior surgeons as a practice-based learning tool. This chapter discusses the need for reforms in the existing surgical training methods and a brief review on simulation, serious games and virtual reality in surgical training. Following this, the principles of design and development of VR Surgery are presented