Mixed Reality for Orthopedic Elbow Surgery Training and Operating Room Applications: A Preliminary Analysis

The use of Mixed Reality in medicine is widely documented to be a candidate to revolutionize surgical interventions. In this paper we present a system to simulate k-wire placement, that is a common orthopedic procedure used to stabilize fractures, dislocations, and other traumatic injuries. With the described system, it is possible to leverage Mixed Reality (MR) and advanced visualization techniques applied on a surgical simulation phantom to enhance surgical training and critical orthopedic surgical procedures. This analysis is centered on evaluating the precision and proficiency of k-wire placement in an elbow surgical phantom, designed with a 3D modeling software starting from a virtual 3D anatomical reference. By visually superimposing 3D reconstructions of internal structures and the target K-wire positioning on the physical model, it is expected not only to improve the learning curve but also to establish a foundation for potential real-time surgical guidance in challenging clinical scenarios. The performance is measured as the difference between K-wires real placement in respect to target position; the quantitative measurements are then used to compare the risk of iatrogenic injury to nerves and vascular structures of MR-guided vs non MR-guided simulated interventions.