The impact of extended reality on surgery: a scoping review.

PURPOSE: Extended reality (XR) is defined as a spectrum of technologies that range from purely virtual environments to enhanced real-world environments. In the past two decades, XR-assisted surgery has seen an increase in its use and also in research and development. This scoping review aims to map out the historical trends in these technologies and their future prospects, with an emphasis on the reported outcomes and ethical considerations on the use of these technologies. METHODS: A systematic search of PubMed, Scopus, and Embase for literature related to XR-assisted surgery and telesurgery was performed using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. Primary studies, peer-reviewed articles that described procedures performed by surgeons on human subjects and cadavers, as well as studies describing general surgical education, were included. Non-surgical procedures, bedside procedures, veterinary procedures, procedures performed by medical students, and review articles were excluded. Studies were classified into the following categories: impact on surgery (pre-operative planning and intra-operative navigation/guidance), impact on the patient (pain and anxiety), and impact on the surgeon (surgical training and surgeon confidence). RESULTS: One hundred and sixty-eight studies were included for analysis. Thirty-one studies investigated the use of XR for pre-operative planning concluded that virtual reality (VR) enhanced the surgeon's spatial awareness of important anatomical landmarks. This leads to shorter operating sessions and decreases surgical insult. Forty-nine studies explored the use of XR for intra-operative planning. They noted that augmented reality (AR) headsets highlight key landmarks, as well as important structures to avoid, which lowers the chance of accidental surgical trauma. Eleven studies investigated patients' pain and noted that VR is able to generate a meditative state. This is beneficial for patients, as it reduces the need for analgesics. Ten studies commented on patient anxiety, suggesting that VR is unsuccessful at altering patients' physiological parameters such as mean arterial blood pressure or cortisol levels. Sixty studies investigated surgical training whilst seven studies suggested that the use of XR-assisted technology increased surgeon confidence. CONCLUSION: The growth of XR-assisted surgery is driven by advances in hardware and software. Whilst augmented virtuality and mixed reality are underexplored, the use of VR is growing especially in the fields of surgical training and pre-operative planning. Real-time intra-operative guidance is key for surgical precision, which is being supplemented with AR technology. XR-assisted surgery is likely to undertake a greater role in the near future, given the effect of COVID-19 limiting physical presence and the increasing complexity of surgical procedures.

Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on hip preservation surgery-a prospective surveillance from the UK Non-Arthroplasty Hip Registry.

A multi-centre, registry-based cohort study was conducted to assess the effect of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the provision of non-arthroplasty hip surgery (NAHS) in the UK by (i) comparing the number of NAHS performed during the pandemic to pre-pandemic levels, (ii) prospectively auditing compliance to established guidance and (iii) evaluating post-operative outcomes and their predictors. Patients who underwent NAHS during the pandemic/pre-pandemic were selected from the Non-Arthroplasty Hip Registry, which collects demographic, procedural and pre-operative outcome data. Patients during the pandemic period were emailed separate COVID-19 surveillance questionnaires, which evaluated adherence to guidelines and post-operative outcomes. Fisher's exact tests and logistic regression were used to identify predictors for developing COVID-19 and being re-admitted into hospital, post-surgery. There was a 64% reduction of NAHS performed during the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period. Ninety-nine percent of participants self-isolated, and 96.8% received screening, pre-operatively. No participant was COVID-19-positive peri-operatively. Post-operatively, participants had an intensive care unit admission rate of 2%, median hospital stay of 1 day, hospital readmission rate of 4.2%, COVID-19 development rate of 2.3% and a thromboembolic complication rate of 0.32%. No COVID-19-positive patient developed adverse post-operative outcomes. Participants who developed COVID-19 post-operatively had greater odds of having undergone osteotomy in comparison to arthroscopic surgery (P = 0.036, odds ratio = 5.36). NAHS was performed with good compliance to established guidance, and adverse operative outcomes remained low. If guidance is followed, the risk of COVID-19 post-op development is low. Although bigger operations have a slightly higher risk, this does not impact their prognosis.

The management of acute knee dislocations: A global survey of orthopaedic surgeons' strategies.

PURPOSE: Great variety and controversies surround the management strategies of acute multiligament knee injuries (aMKLIs) and no established guidelines exist for resource-limited practices. The aim of this study was to compare the management approach of acute knee dislocations (AKDs) by orthopedic surgeons from nations with different economic status. METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional scenario-based survey compares different management strategies for aMLKIs of surgeons in developed economic nations (DEN) and emerging markets and developing nations (EMDN). The main areas of focus were operative versus non-operative management, timing and staging of surgery, graft choice and vascular assessment strategies. The members of the Societe Internationale de Chirurgie Orthopedique et de Traumatologie (SICOT) were approached to participate and information was collected regarding their demographics, experience, hospital setting and management strategies of aMLKIs. These were analyzed after categorizing participants into DEN and EMDN based on the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. RESULTS: One-hundred and thirty-eight orthopedic surgeons from 47 countries participated in this study, 67 from DEN and 71 (51.4%) from EMDN. DEN surgeons had more years of experience and were older (p < 0.05). Surgeons from EMDN mostly worked in public sector hospitals, were general orthopedic surgeons and treated patients from a low-income background. They preferred conservative management and delayed reconstruction with autograft (p < 0.05) if surgery was necessary. Surgeons from DEN favored early, single stage arthroscopic ligament reconstruction. Selective Computerized Tomography Angiography (CTA) was the most preferred choice of arterial examination for both groups. Significantly more EMDN surgeons preferred clinical examination (p < 0.05) and duplex doppler scanning (p < 0.05) compared to DEN surgeons. More surgeons from EMDN did not have access to a physiotherapist for their patients. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment of aMLKIs vary significantly based on the economic status of the country. Surgeons from DEN prefer early, single stage arthroscopic ligament reconstruction, while conservative management is favored in EMDN. Ligament surgery in EMDN is often delayed and staged. EMDN respondents utilize duplex doppler scanning and clinical examination more readily in their vascular assessment of aMLKIs. These findings highlight very distinct approaches to MLKIs in low-resource settings which are often neglected when guidelines are generated.

Virtual exams: has COVID-19 provided the impetus to change assessment methods in medicine?

AIMS: The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted and delayed medical and surgical examinations where attendance is required in person. Our article aims to outline the validity of online assessment, the range of benefits to both candidate and assessor, and the challenges to its implementation. In addition, we propose pragmatic suggestions for its introduction into medical assessment. METHODS: We reviewed the literature concerning the present status of online medical and surgical assessment to establish the perceived benefits, limitations, and potential problems with this method of assessment. RESULTS: Global experience with online, remote virtual examination has been largely successful with many benefits conferred to the trainee, and both an economic and logistical advantage conferred to the assessor or organization. Advances in online examination software and remote proctoring are overcoming practical caveats including candidate authentication, cheating prevention, cybersecurity, and IT failure. CONCLUSION: Virtual assessment provides benefits to both trainee and assessor in medical and surgical examinations and may also result in cost savings. Virtual assessment is likely to be increasingly used in the post-COVID world and we present recommendations for the continued adoption of virtual examination. It is, however, currently unable to completely replace clinical assessment of trainees. Cite this article: Bone Jt Open 2021;2(2):111-118.

Risk of a second wave of Covid-19 infections: using artificial intelligence to investigate stringency of physical distancing policies in North America.

PURPOSE: Accurately forecasting the occurrence of future covid-19-related cases across relaxed (Sweden) and stringent (USA and Canada) policy contexts has a renewed sense of urgency. Moreover, there is a need for a multidimensional county-level approach to monitor the second wave of covid-19 in the USA. METHOD: We use an artificial intelligence framework based on timeline of policy interventions that triangulated results based on the three approaches-Bayesian susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR), Kalman filter, and machine learning. RESULTS: Our findings suggest three important insights. First, the effective growth rate of covid-19 infections dropped in response to the approximate dates of key policy interventions. We find that the change points for spreading rates approximately coincide with the timelines of policy interventions across respective countries. Second, forecasted trend until mid-June in the USA was downward trending, stable, and linear. Sweden is likely to be heading in the other direction. That is, Sweden's forecasted trend until mid-June appears to be non-linear and upward trending. Canada appears to fall somewhere in the middle-the trend for the same period is flat. Third, a Kalman filter based robustness check indicates that by mid-June the USA will likely have close to two million virus cases, while Sweden will likely have over 44,000 covid-19 cases. CONCLUSION: We show that drop in effective growth rate of covid-19 infections was sharper in the case of stringent policies (USA and Canada) but was more gradual in the case of relaxed policy (Sweden). Our study exhorts policy makers to take these results into account as they consider the implications of relaxing lockdown measures.

Maximizing virtual meetings and conferences: a review of best practices.

PURPOSE: In the current COVID-19 pandemic, it is more important than ever to maximize communication in the scientific and medical community. In the context of academic meetings and conferences, there is the growing need for a set of guidelines secondary to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the growing environmental and economic challenges that large academic and medical conferences face. These Virtual Meetings Best Practices were established in response to the scant evidence and guidance on the topic. METHODS: These best practice guidelines were developed from a scoping review of peer-reviewed literature, grey literature and lay literature. MEDLINE and Embase databases were scoped for relevant, non-duplicate articles. For lay articles, Google searches were utilized. The recommendations that comprise this document are a compilation of nonexperimental descriptive studies (e.g. case studies) and expert committee reports, opinions and/or experience of respected authorities, and lay articles. RESULTS: We identified four phases of the meeting cycle: Pre-planning considerations, Planning, Accomplishing conference goals through execution, gauging Response and Engaging the target audience for future cycles (PrePARE). Akin to the Plan, Do, Study, Act Cycle of quality improvement interventions, this document is meant to drive meaningful initial and subsequent interventions in the meetings of the medical and academic community. This covers actions and preparation for registration, scheduling, speakers, attendees, event type, technology, monetization/marketing, dealing with disruptions, post-event deliverables, response and engagement strategies. Enhanced access to integrated, high-quality and efficient virtual meetings will establish a new norm as an effective alternative for innovative health research, education and information dissemination in orthopaedics and beyond. CONCLUSIONS: Given the uncertainty of whether large in-person gatherings will be permitted, advisable or responsible later into the summer of 2020 and beyond, these guidelines will aid events being converted and scheduled as virtual-only meetings. As we move forward in the era of increased utility and utilization of virtual conferencing, these guidelines will serve as a benchmark and standard for surgeons in the field.

Protecting healthcare workers from COVID-19: learning from variation in practice and policy identified through a global cross-sectional survey.

AIMS: The COVID-19 pandemic presents an unprecedented burden on global healthcare systems, and existing infrastructures must adapt and evolve to meet the challenge. With health systems reliant on the health of their workforce, the importance of protection against disease transmission in healthcare workers (HCWs) is clear. This study collated responses from several countries, provided by clinicians familiar with practice in each location, to identify areas of best practice and policy so as to build consensus of those measures that might reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 to HCWs at work. METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive survey was designed with ten open and closed questions and sent to a representative sample. The sample was selected on a convenience basis of 27 senior surgeons, members of an international surgical society, who were all frontline workers in the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was reported according to the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR) checklist. RESULTS: Responses were received by all 27 surgeons from 22 countries across six continents. A number of the study respondents reported COVID-19-related infection and mortality in HCWs in their countries. Differing areas of practice and policy were identified and organized into themes including the specification of units receiving COVID-19 patients, availability and usage of personal protective equipment (PPE), other measures to reduce staff exposure, and communicating with and supporting HCWs. Areas more specific to surgery also identified some variation in practice and policy in relation to visitors to the hospital, the outpatient department, and in the operating room for both non-urgent and emergency care. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 presents a disproportionate risk to HCWs, potentially resulting in a diminished health system capacity, and consequently an impairment to population health. Implementation of these recommendations at an international level could provide a framework to reduce this burden.