Real-time Cataract Surgery Simulation for Training

Cataract is a clouding of the eye’s natural lens, normally due to natural aging changes, and involving at least half of the population over 65 years. Cataract extraction is the only solution for restoring a clear vision, and nowadays is probably the most frequently practiced surgical procedure. This paper describes a novel virtual reality simulation system for cataract surgery training, involving the capsulorhexis and phacoemulsication tasks. The simulator runs on a multiprocessing PC platform and provides realistic physically-based visual simulations of tools interactions. The current setup employs SensAble PHANToM for simulating the interaction devices, and a binocular display for presenting images to the user.