VIRTUAL REALITY SURGICAL SIMULATOR - THE 1ST STEPS

The virtual-reality surgical simulator signals the beginning of an era of computer simulation for surgery. The surgical resident of the futu re will learn new perspectives on surgical anatomy and repeatedly prac tice surgical procedures until they are perfect before performing surg ery on patients. Primitive though these initial steps are, they repres ent the foundation for an educational base that will be as important t o surgery as the flight simulator is to aviation. It is anticipated th at the full development of the surgical simulator will take less than the 40 years which was required for flight simulators to become an ind ispensable ingredient of pilot training. As the system evolves, many n ew and yet-to-be-imagined applications will arise, but we must have un derstanding and patience as we wait for computer power to improve to a point where VR surgical simulation can emerge from its PacMan era.