Qualitative and Quantitative Radiological Measures of Fracture Healing.

The formulation of appropriate postoperative strategies, following fracture repair, currently involves an understanding of radiological and clinical outcome measures. This study has evaluated several modalities used to assess the progression of bone healing in a sheep tibial segmental defect model. Measures of defect optical density and volumetric data including bone density (BD), bone volume (BV) and bone mass (BM) were compared with qualitative data involving visual appraisal of radiographs [% bridging callus and modified radiographic union score tibia (mRUST)] and a clinical outcome measure (locomotory function).

Comparing surgical experience with performance on a sinus surgery simulator.

Background: This study evaluates whether surgical experience influences technical competence using the Flinders sinus surgery simulator, a virtual environment designed to teach nasal endoscopic surgical skills.

Methods: Ten experienced sinus surgeons (five consultants and five registrars) and 14 novices (seven resident medical officers and seven interns/medical students) completed three simulation tasks using haptic controllers. Task 1 required navigation of the sinuses and identification of six anatomical landmarks, Task 2 required removal of unhealthy tissue while preserving healthy tissue and Task 3 entailed backbiting within pre-set lines on the uncinate process and microdebriding tissue between the cuts.

Validation of virtual-reality-based simulations for endoscopic sinus surgery.

Background: Virtual reality (VR) simulators provide an alternative to real patients for practicing surgical skills but require validation to ensure accuracy. Here, we validate the use of a virtual reality sinus surgery simulator with haptic feedback for training in Otorhinolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery (OHNS).

Methods: Participants were recruited from final-year medical students, interns, resident medical officers (RMOs), OHNS registrars and consultants.

Real-time interactive isosurfacing: a new method for improving marching isosurfacing algorithm output and efficiency.

Efficient rendering of a changing volumetric data-set is central to the development of effective medical simulations that incorporate haptic feedback. A new method referred to as real-time interactive isosurfacing (RTII) is described in this paper. RTII is an algorithm that can be applied to output from Marching Cubes-like algorithms to improve performance for real-time applications.

Toward photorealism in endoscopic sinus surgery simulation.

Background: Endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) is the surgical standard treatment for chronic rhinitis/rhinosinusitis and nasal polyposis. There is a reported complication rate of 5-10% associated with this type of surgery. Simulation has been advocated as a means to improve surgical training and minimize the rates of complication and medical error.