
==== Front
Interv Pain Med
Interv Pain Med
Interventional Pain Medicine
2772-5944
Elsevier

S2772-5944(22)00079-6
10.1016/j.inpm.2022.100088
100088
Imaging Studies
Virtual reality for procedural education: Lumbar medial branch radiofrequency neurotomy
Jotwani Rohan
Fiore Michael
Yong Robert Jason
Hao David davidhaomd@gmail.com
∗
Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
∗ Corresponding author. Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Brookline, MA, 02445, USA. davidhaomd@gmail.com
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© 2022 The Author(s)
2022
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Virtual reality (VR) simulation is an emerging tool in medical education. Simulation conducted in VR can reproduce procedural scenarios and allow for immersive interaction with anatomic models. This has the potential to improve understanding of anatomy and concepts relevant to interventional procedures.

Here, we present a “proof-of-concept” modeling of lumbar thermal radiofrequency neurotomy through cost-effective, commercially available VR hardware and software. With this technology, we can demonstrate key fluoroscopic views and needle trajectories based on specific recommendations from Spine Intervention Society guidelines. Furthermore, the learner can manipulate the model in multiple 3-dimensional axes to visualize anatomy relevant to key fluoroscopic views. Finally, the content can be exported by recording a live casting stream, thus offering an approach for future content creation and collaboration.

VR technology is an emerging educational modality that offers immersive and interactive features that may offer advantages to traditional visual teaching modalities.
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Supplementary video related to this article can be found at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.inpm.2022.100088

The following is the supplementary data related to this article:

Financial Support

The authors have no sources of financial support to disclose.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to 3D Organon VR Anatomy for software access and support.
