Medical training simulators for bilateral sagittal split osteotomy and regional aneasthesia in virtual environments

Regional anaesthesia and bilateral sagittal split osteotomy are both clinical procedures which require profound theoretical knowledge and specific motor skills for successful accomplishment. As training opportunities are rare and can be harmful for patients, we started the development of two virtual reality-based surgical training simulators. While visualization is an important topic on its own, here the research challenges are predominantly interaction and real-time simulation. More specifically, solutions for realistic haptic feedback, multi-layer tissue deformation and simulation of crack propagation have to be found. In this article we present the chosen methods and some preliminary results.