[Intraoperative Utilization of Preoperative Virtual Reality Surgical Simulation].

The use of preoperative virtual reality simulations based on medical imaging for surgical support can be divided into two phases; preoperative and intraoperative. In the preoperative phase, fusion three-dimensional (3D) images constructed from multiple medical imaging datasets are employed to observe the 3D anatomical structures around the lesion and surgical approach in detail. Based on the anatomical findings obtained from fusion 3D images, surgical planning is completed by virtually simulating surgical procedures, such as craniotomy, tissue deformation, and using surgical instruments. In the intraoperative phase, a surgical plan was used. These include tools for displaying surgical plans on intraoperative navigation systems, viewing fusion 3D images on tablet computers, and combining fusion 3D images with the surgical field using mixed-reality technology. This section focuses on preoperative virtual reality simulation and the intraoperative application of 3D image fusion, highlighting efforts at our institution through presentations of illustrative cases.