Introduction: Current methods of training microsurgical interventions have various limitations, including limited transferability to the human model, economic demands, and ethical concerns. In this article, we show how surgery simulations can overcome these issues and how, combined with the application of an intelligent tutoring system (ITS), they can be used to train tasks in ophthalmic surgery more efficiently.
Methods: We investigated physician trainee efficiency of learning microsurgical skills using our purpose-built microsurgery simulator that tracks a micromanipulator and displays a three-dimensional representation of the interior of a human eye in an augmented reality (AR) headset. The expertise of ophthalmic surgeons helped define five subtasks corresponding to the steps of internal limiting membrane peeling. Using our AR surgery simulation, 50 participants underwent two training sessions, one using the ITS that dynamically adapts the task sequence to the participant's progress and one using a fixed task sequence.
Results: We found significant improvement in micromanipulation performance in the first training session with both the ITS and classic training. In the second session, however, only the participants training with the ITS had further improvements in performance.
Conclusions: Results of this study demonstrate the usability of AR simulation in training micromanipulation skills and support the claim that simulators can be used in ophthalmic surgery training. This study also extends the existing literature by demonstrating an application of ITS for surgical training. The potential of this method is further analyzed in ongoing studies and discussions with experts in ophthalmic surgery.