A Simulator for Regional Anesthesia Training

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) has as goal the creation of digital three dimensional environments to run in real time interactive and realistic experiences. The experiences can be augmented by the use of haptic systems, able to provide sense of touch in virtual objects. The anesthesia procedure is present in all surgeries to keep stable the patient physiology. The use of VR based simulators for anesthesia training can allow decreasing of costs, reduction of risks and avoid the practice in real patients without previous practical experience. The objective of the present work was the modeling of a computer based simulator for the training of interns in regional anesthesia with focus on epidural and spinal anesthesia. Meetings with interns in anesthesiology, lecturers and practitioners were necessary to define the system requirements. It resulted in a diagram with the activities present in the procedure and necessary to the learning process. The virtual environment and some activities were implemented with the Unity 3D engine. Tasks that demanded force feedback were proposed to be used with the PHANToM® OMNI device and the software libraries integrated with this engine. As initial results we obtained the modeling of the environment, of the tasks to be performed by users and the implementation of the initial and monitoring steps