Improvement of Psychomotor Skill Development for Veress Needle Insertion with Haptics and Virtual Reality

Veress needle (VN) insertion is the first step of every laparoscopic procedure, which allows the surgeon to inflate the abdomen with CO2, known as pneumoperitoneum. VN insertion is never perfectly safe, and almost every kind of intra-abdominal organ injury, most notably vascular and bowel injuries, due to these insertions has been reported worldwide. Therefore, proper cognitive and psychomotor training is needed. Virtual reality (VR) and haptics technologies have the potential to offer realistic simulations without putting patients at risk. However, currently there are no commercially-available VR and haptic simulators for VN insertion. A novel VR and haptic surgical simulator for VN insertion has been developed. It allows trainees to learn how correctly puncture the abdominal wall without damaging the internal organs, by visualizing an anatomically correct 3D virtual human abdomen, and experiencing realistic tactile sensations throughout the simulation by manipulating a virtual VN with a haptic device stylus. This dissertation presents the design and implementation details of the VN virtual reality and haptic simulator.