Development and Initial Validation of a Virtual Reality Haptically Augmented Surgical Knot-Tying Trainer for the Autosuture™ ENDOSTITCH™ Instrument

摘要

The Autosuture^™ Endostitch ^™ device (Covidien, CT) is difficult to learn. In particular, the handle requires the use of a toggle which is unique in this instrument. We have developed a virtual reality trainer for the device that offers the use of the actual instrument handle while creating a visible virtual instrument tip complete with virtual needle and suture on a monitor. This report represents the development and initial validation experiments for the device.