NEURONAVIGATION SKILL TRAINING THROUGH SIMULATION: INSIGHTS FROM EYE DATA

Neuronavigation systems are developed to support the brain surgery operations. Because of its complex anatomical structure, the neurosurgery is a risky and critical operation. The surgeon is required to perform the operation in a very small area with very restricted movements. The neuronavigation systems are developed to help the surgeon during the operation to show the current position of the surgery with respect to the 3D virtual model of the patient. In these systems, the 3D virtual model of the patient is created according to the medical data (MRI/BT) of the patient. Hence these systems work like navigations systems that are used in driving a car. The surgeon controls this system through a software interface and correlates the current position of the operation with the 3D patient virtual model. In this way, the surgeon checks the critical anatomical structures through this system and eliminates possible risks. Hence, surgeons who will perform such operations are required to develop several skills to manage this very complicated procedure. They are required to perform the operation according to the information obtained from the navigation display. Additionally, in order to reach relevant information from the navigation display, they have to control the navigation panel. In order to prepare surgeons to manage this very complicated environment, their required skills need to be improved during the training period. In this study, to better understand the surgeons’ behaviours while managing the tasks related to the surgical navigation procedures, a simulation based environment is developed and an experimental study is conducted with 10 people. Their eye data and their performance data is recorded based on the simulated tasks. The results of the study are analyzed descriptively and statistically. The results of this study aims to guide the instructional system developers to better address the skill improvement problems of the resident surgeons for neuronavigation procedures.