LIVE SURGERY BROADCAST USING MIXED REALITY: WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES AND CHALLENGES?

Live surgery broadcast is an innovative method of introducing new operative techniques to surgeons around the world. However, due to the potential impact on patient outcomes, its use remains somewhat controversial. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of live surgery on operative time and complication rate in patients undergoing AAGR for shoulder instability. We hypothesized that live surgery would maintain a similar surgical time and intra- and post-operative complication profile. This was a retrospective review of 94 patients who underwent AAGR between 2013-2023. A 1:1 ratio was used to match patients who had AAGR during a live surgery demonstration (Broadcast group) to patients who underwent AAGR without live surgery (No Broadcast group), based on sex, BMI (+ 3), and age (+ 3). The primary outcome for the study was surgical time, defined as the time from initial incision to final closure. Secondarily, we compared the intra-operative and early post-operative complications (< 1 month) between the groups. The Broadcast group had a significantly greater procedure time compared to the No Broadcast group (86.90 + 13.1 vs. 80.70 +14.0 minutes, p 0.0.5). One patient (2.4%) in the Broadcast group developed a post-operative hematoma, while one patient (2.4%) in the No Broadcast group developed a wound infection. This study demonstrated that live surgeries are on average 6 minutes longer but are not associated with increased complications in patients undergoing AAGR.