Development of training system for left ventricular plastic surgery

Dilated ventricular volumes due to myocardial infarction and dilated cardiomyopathy are reduced by excising and sewing up the infarction regions. The surgical plans for each patients´ heart are determined in the operating room. Using a heart-lung machine, a volume reduction test estimates the suited ventricular volume for beating and thickening. The cardiac surgeons palpate a cardiac muscle in order for identifying the cardiac muscular regions that should be excised, and resects and stitches up the ventricle. Opportunities to learn these surgical processes are limited in the operation, and the conditions of the diseased cardiac muscle can not be declared even if the latest medical measuring techniques, MRI, XCT, and echo are used before the surgery. The cardiac surgeons, therefore, highly desire a system which can produce the training opportunity of the surgical process of the volume reduction surgery. We have developed a training system for cardiac muscle palpation which is composed of a virtual heart and a haptic device, and they were appreciated from the cardiac surgeons. This paper introduces the training system we have developed, and some improvements of the virtual heart to make more practical.