Immersion Medical Adds Knot Tying and Suturing to LaparoscopyVR

Immersion Corporation, a developer and licensor of touch feedback technology, has announced that Immersion Medical is to add a module that includes Suturing and Knot Tying procedures and Needle Orientation and Driving skills for the LaparoscopyVR (LapVR) surgical simulator. The simulator’s suturing procedure is to provide practice in ligating loops, simple-interrupted, continuous, and horizontal-mattress techniques. The LapVR surgical simulator is to presents users with a realistic animated bowel of lifelike thickness. Users must correctly drive the needle through exterior and internal surfaces of the bowel, bring the cut edges together, and tie knots securely. “In the LapVR simulator, we’re providing a major step-up in the training environment for these skills,” said Dr. Kevin Kunkler, vice president and medical director of Immersion Medical. “For example, the system recognizes whether the user has double looped the suture, or when tying knots, whether they crossed in front of or behind the other length. These are maneuvers a surgeon needs for locking down knots and for completing surgeries successfully. So, the LapVR surgical simulator provides a high level of certainty about a user’s performance, which is exactly what you want in a medical training program.” “Suturing and tying knots within the abdomen are among the most difficult skills that a laparoscopic surgeon needs to master,” said Dr. Parag Bhanot, assistant professor of surgery at Georgetown University Hospital. “I was impressed that I could mimic the same motions in Immersion Medical’s LapVR system that I perform in the operating room. The training modules are very realistic and avoid the typical video game appearance; thus, making it a very valuable and effective teaching tool.”