Virtual Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery Simulation with 3D‐Printed Models for Mixed‐Reality Nasal Endoscopy

The surgeon's knowledge of a patient's individual anatomy is critical in skull base surgery. Trainees and experienced surgeons can benefit from surgical simulation; however, current models are expensive and impractical for widespread use. In this study, we report a next‐generation mixed‐reality surgical simulator. We segmented critical anatomic structures for 3‐dimensional (3D) models to develop a modular teaching tool. We then developed a navigation tracking system utilizing a 3D‐printed endoscope as a trackable virtual‐reality (VR) controller and validated the accuracy on VR and 3D‐printed skull models within 1 cm. We combined VR and augmented‐reality visual cues with our 3D physical model to simulate sinus endoscopy and highlight segmented structures in real time. This report provides evidence that a mixed‐reality simulator combining VR and 3D‐printed models is feasible and may prove useful as an educational tool that is low cost and customizable.