Our paper on "Virtual reality volumetric rendering versus cross-sectional imaging for pancreatic cancer resectability assessment: a pilot randomized controlled reader study" is available here. Authors are K. Eisenträger, K. Saribeyoglu, U. Fehrenbach, M. Felsenstein, L. Timmermann, P.L.M. Pereira, W. Schöning, B. Strücker, J. Pratschke, A. Pascher, T. Malinka, I.M. Sauer, H. Morgul, and M. Queisner.
This study evaluated whether virtual reality (VR) visualization of CT scans improves the assessment of pancreatic cancer resectability compared with conventional cross-sectional imaging (CSI) on 2D screens. Ten hepatopancreatobiliary surgeons assessed twelve CT cases using either VR volumetric rendering or standard CSI. Results showed that CSI outperformed VR. CSI achieved substantial inter-rater agreement (κ = 0.609), whereas VR showed only slight agreement (κ = 0.127). Diagnostic accuracy was also higher with CSI (84.7% vs. 79.7%), particularly for determining resectability (83.3% vs. 58.3%). Surgeons using VR reported lower confidence, while assessment time was similar between the two methods.
Overall, this preliminary study suggests that the tested VR visualization strategy performed worse than conventional imaging. However, previous research indicates that different or hybrid VR visualization approaches may still improve agreement, implying that the specific visualization method—rather than VR technology itself—determines clinical usefulness.