Virtual Surgery: Construction of a Training Program and Analysis of Significant Factors for Operating Performance

Operations in the retina and removal of the vitreous (vitrectomy) is a type of operation where the surgeon requires much training and where there is an increased risk of operative complications in the early stage. For this reason, virtual surgery is suited to help training and subsequent maintenance of operational skills \[1, 2\]. There are no previously published research in virtual vitreoretinal surgery, but this is nevertheless vital to better surgical training. Many surgical disorders - such as retinal detachment - progresses with time, and it is often not known when to ideally operate \[3\]. On one hand, it may be best to operate early and thereby reduce the risk of disease progression before surgery. On the other hand, it is also important to take into account factors such as the presence of the correct operational expertise as well as the surgeon's fatigue and stress levels. These mentioned matters is difficult to test clinically. With virtual surgery it will be possible to introduce various operational distractions and see what impact it has on operating performance. The purpose of the study 'Virtual vitreoretinal surgery: construction of a training program and analysis of significant factors for operating performance' is 1) to facilitate the training of future vitreoretinal surgeons by introducing a virtual training program with high construction validity, and 2) to clarify which external conditions affects the performance of trained operator using the virtual training program.