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Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Serious Games

Date Submitted: Jan 30, 2021
Open Peer Review Period: Jan 30, 2021 - Mar 27, 2021
Date Accepted: May 14, 2021
(closed for review but you can still tweet)

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Use of a Virtual Reality Simulator for Tendon Repair Training: Randomized Controlled Trial

Tsz Ngai M, Li L, Chen J, Ming WK, He Q, Sin TH, Deng J, Yu S, Pan J, Li J, Zha Z

Use of a Virtual Reality Simulator for Tendon Repair Training: Randomized Controlled Trial

JMIR Serious Games 2021;9(3):e27544

DOI: 10.2196/27544

PMID: 34255649

PMCID: 8314161

Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.

The New Approach for Tendon Repair Training: Virtual Reality Simulator

  • Mok Tsz Ngai; 
  • Layla Li; 
  • Junyuan Chen; 
  • Wai-Kit Ming; 
  • Qiyu He; 
  • Tat Hang Sin; 
  • Jialin Deng; 
  • Shinning Yu; 
  • Jinghua Pan; 
  • Jieruo Li; 
  • Zhengang Zha

ABSTRACT

Background:

The use of virtual reality (VR) simulators in medical schools has become widespread to train medical students and residents. The students using VR simulators are provided with a three-dimensional human model to observe human details using multiple senses and can participate in an environment relatively close to the reality. This paper promotes a new approach consisting of a sharing and independent study platform for medical orthopedics students.

Objective:

This study compared traditional tendon repair training and VR simulation of tendon repair and evaluated future applications of VR simulation in the medical academic field.

Methods:

One-hundred twenty-one participants were allocated into the VR and control groups. The participants in the VR group were studying the tendon repair technique via the VR simulator; while the control group followed traditional tendon suture teaching methods.

Results:

A total of 117 participants finished the assessment, and four participants were lost during follow-up. The overall performance (a total 35 score) for the VR group using the “Kessler tendon repair with 2 interrupted tendon repair knots” method was significantly higher score (P <.001) than the control group (24.13 ± 1.71 versus 20.38 ± 1.21). Moreover, for the “Bunnell tendon repair with figure 8 tendon repair” method, the VR group also had a significantly better result (P < .001) than the control group (22.8 ± 1.81 versus 19.9 ± 2.27). The participants using the VR simulator training had a significantly higher score than those using the traditional training method.

Conclusions:

Use of the VR simulator for learning the tendon suture produced a significant improvement in the time in motion, suture skill, flow of operation, and knowledge of procedure for medical students than using traditional tendon suture method. Therefore, future VR simulator development would likely be beneficial for medical education and clinical practice.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Tsz Ngai M, Li L, Chen J, Ming WK, He Q, Sin TH, Deng J, Yu S, Pan J, Li J, Zha Z

Use of a Virtual Reality Simulator for Tendon Repair Training: Randomized Controlled Trial

JMIR Serious Games 2021;9(3):e27544

DOI: 10.2196/27544

PMID: 34255649

PMCID: 8314161

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