Accelerating Surgical Simulation Development via OpenSurgSim: Burr Hole Trainer

The first complete simulation based on OpenSurgSim (OSS) is used as a case study for analyzing how the toolkit can accelerate the development of surgical simulations. The Burr Hole Trainer (BHT) is designed to train non-neurosurgeons to drill holes in the skull to relieve intracranial pressure, and the majority of its simulation functionality is provided by OSS. Based on code size, using OSS cut the development time in half, reduced the necessary size of the development team by two-thirds, and saved millions of US dollars.