The Role of Three-Dimensional Modeling to Improve Comprehension of Liver Anatomy and Tumor Characteristics for Medical Students and Surgical Residents

OBJECTIVE: Studying liver anatomy can be challenging for medical students and surgical residents due to its complexity. Three-dimensional visualization technology (3DVT) allows for a clearer and more precise view of liver anatomy. We sought to assess how 3DVT can assist students and surgical residents comprehend liver anatomy. DESIGN: Data from 5 patients who underwent liver resection for malignancy at our institution between September 2020 and April 2022 were retrospectively reviewed and selected following consensus among the investigators. Participants were required to complete an online survey to investigate their understanding of tumor characteristics and vascular variations based on patients' computed tomography (CT) and 3DVT. SETTING: The study was carried out at the General and Hepato-Biliary Surgery Department of the University of Verona. PARTICIPANTS: Among 32 participants, 13 (40.6%) were medical students, and 19 (59.4%) were surgical residents. RESULTS: Among 5 patients with intrahepatic lesions, 4 patients (80.0%) had at least 1 vascular variation. Participants identified number and location of lesions more correctly when evaluating the 3DVT (84.6% and 80.9%, respectively) compared with CT scans (61.1% and 64.8%, respectively) (both p < 0.001). The identification of any vascular variations was more challenging using the CT scans, with only 50.6% of correct answers compared with 3DVT (72.2%) (p < 0.001). Compared with CT scans, 3DVT led to a 23.5%, 16.1%, and 21.6% increase in the correct definition of number and location of lesions, and vascular variations, respectively. 3DVT allowed for a decrease of 50.8 seconds (95% CI 23.6-78.0) in the time needed to answer the questions. All participants agreed on the usefulness of 3DVT in hepatobiliary surgery. CONCLUSIONS: The 3DVT facilitated a more precise preoperative understanding of liver anatomy, tumor location and characteristics. (c) 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Association of Program Directors in Surgery. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/))