Development and Evaluation of a Stepwise Learning Support System for Surgical Education Using Augmented Reality

This study presents a novel surgical training system utilizing the Apple Vision Pro, developed to address both the growing shortage of surgeons and the limitations of conventional surgical education. Traditional methods, relying primarily on textbooks and 2D videos, often fail to convey the three-dimensional anatomical transformations that occur during real procedures. To overcome this limitation, our system overlays text, images, 2D videos, 3D models, and stereoscopic 3D video footage captured in the operating room onto the user's field of view, aligned with each surgical step. This integration allows for a more intuitive and spatially accurate understanding of surgical workflows. The system was evaluated with both medical professionals and non-medical participants. Medical participants reported greater learning effectiveness compared to conventional methods, while non-medical users gave positive feedback on usability and visibility. These results suggest that the proposed AR-based system is a promising educational tool that could enhance surgical training and contribute to mitigating the decline in the surgical workforce.