Virtual Reality–Based Simulators for Cranial Tumor Surgery: A Systematic Review

Virtual reality (VR) simulators have become useful tools in various fields of medicine. Prominent uses of VR technologies include assessment of physician skills and presurgical planning. VR has shown effectiveness in multiple surgical specialties, yet its use in neurosurgery remains limited. To examine all current literature on VR-based simulation for presurgical planning and training in cranial tumor surgeries and to assess the quality of these studies. PubMed and Embase were systematically searched to identify studies that used VR for presurgical planning and/or studies that investigated the use of VR as a training tool from inception to May 25, 2017. The initial search identified 1662 articles. Thirty-seven full-text articles were assessed for inclusion. Nine studies were included. These studies were subdivided into presurgical planning and training using VR. Prospects for VR are bright when surgical planning and skills training are considered. In terms of surgical planning, VR has noted and documented usefulness in the planning of cranial surgeries. Further, VR has been central to establishing reproducible benchmarks of performance in relation to cranial tumor resection, which are helpful not only in showing face and construct validity but also in enhancing neurosurgical training in a way not previously examined. Although additional studies are needed to better delineate the precise role of VR in each of these capacities, these studies stand to show the usefulness of VR in the neurosurgery and highlight the need for further investigation.