Towards the Emergence of the Medical Metaverse: A Pilot Study on Shared Virtual Reality for Orthognathic-Surgical Planning

Three-dimensional (3D) medical images are used for diagnosis and in surgical operation planning. Computer-assisted surgical simulations (CASS) are essential for complex surgical procedures that are often performed in an interdisciplinary manner. Traditionally, the participants study the designs on the same display. In 3D virtual reality (VR) environments, the planner is wearing a head-mounted display (HMD). The designs can be then examined in VR by other persons wearing HMDs, which is a practical use case for the medical metaverse. A multi-user VR environment was built for the planning of an orthognathic-surgical (correction of facial skeleton) operation. Four domain experts (oral and maxillofacial radiologists) experimented with the pilot system and found it useful. It enabled easier observation of the model and a better understanding of the structures. There was a voice connection and co-operation during the procedure was natural. The planning task is complex, leading to a certain level of complexity in the user interface.