Using Virtual Reality to Teach Sinus Anatomy

Abstract

Anatomy education is a very important part of the curriculum for medical students and is also essential for surgeons to perform safe surgery. The anatomy of the sinus cavity is complicated and not easy to understand through dissection practice of cadavers and reading of textbooks of surgical anatomy. Developing methods to effectively teach the anatomy of structures with a complex anatomy is essential for safe medical procedures.

We devised a system to observe the paranasal sinuses in virtual reality (VR) space by polygonizing the shape of the sinus cavity from sinus CT images. Medical students moved around in the VR space and observed the sinuses from various angles that is not possible in a conventional anatomy lab. This VR application was applied to student education to investigate whether it could contribute to the understanding and learning of the complex anatomy of the sinuses. A questionnaire was administered to 27 medical students (15 males and 12 females; mean age, 24.9 years) to evaluate their understanding of sinus anatomy and the number of times they had experienced and used VR systems.

It was found that more than 70% of the students had never used VR before, but they could use it smoothly even if they were unfamiliar with the operation of VR systems, and the learning process was enjoyable and efficient. Thus, VR applications could be a useful tool for the education of medical students.