Augmented Reality-Guided ENT Surgery: Enhancing Accuracy with High-Fidelity Anatomy| Chapter 3 | Medical Science: Recent Advances and Applications Vol. 11

 

Augmented reality (AR) is increasingly being adopted in otolaryngology for enhancing anatomical visualisation and guiding complex surgical procedures. This review synthesises current evidence on the role of AR in ear, nose, and throat (ENT) surgery with an emphasis on high-fidelity anatomy. Published studies demonstrate that AR systems provide sub-millimetric accuracy in intraoperative navigation, reduce operative time, and improve surgeon confidence, particularly in anatomically intricate regions such as the temporal bone, middle ear, and skull base. Advances in optical see-through head-mounted displays, marker-less registration, and multimodal imaging integration have improved reliability and ergonomics in the operating room. Beyond intraoperative use, AR has shown strong potential in surgical education and simulation, offering interactive training modules that outperform conventional teaching methods in skill acquisition and anatomical comprehension. Despite these benefits, challenges remain regarding registration drift, device ergonomics, cost, and the absence of standardised evaluation metrics. Current evidence is largely based on feasibility studies and small clinical series, underscoring the need for large-scale randomised trials. Overall, AR-guided ENT surgery is a rapidly advancing field with significant implications for surgical safety, efficiency, and training, poised to become an integral component of routine clinical practice in the near future.

 

 

Author(s) Details

Shrikrishna B H
Department of ENT, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bibinagar, India.

 

Deepa G
Department of Anatomy, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bibinagar, India.

 

Please see the book here :- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/msraa/v11/6216