Apple Vision Pro in Surgery: A New Paper

Surgical Experience, Efficiency, and Cost

It was an honor to collaborate with Dr. Bobby Korn of USCD, Dr. Tommy Korn of Sharp Healthcare, and Nahia Jalbout, Rolika Bansal, Marissa Shoji, Sarah Cheng, Alessia D’Urso, Hetal Hosalkar, Catherine Liu, Don O. Kikkawa, and Ryan Broderick on our new paper published in AJO International (American Journal of Ophthalmology), exploring the use of Apple Vision Pro as a wearable spatial computing display for endoscopic lacrimal surgery.

Conducted at the UC San Diego Shiley Eye Institute, the study, titled "Apple Vision Pro as a Wearable Display for Endoscopic Dacryocystorhinostomy: Surgical Experience, Efficiency, and Cost," is among the first studies evaluating Apple Vision Pro as the primary intraoperative display for endoscopic lacrimal surgery. We compared it with the traditional monitor-based approach, focusing on surgical efficiency, surgeon workload, ergonomics, and cost.

Key findings include:
• 19% shorter operative times
• 100% functional success with no intraoperative or postoperative complications
• Significantly lower surgeon-reported workload, with every participating surgeon preferring the Apple Vision Pro experience
• Improved ergonomics, allowing surgeons to maintain a natural, forward-facing posture while requiring only a fraction of the space and cost of conventional operating room visualization systems.

My contribution was to assess the cost and space impacts of the Apple Vision Pro in the constrained environments of ophthalmology operating rooms. The data are shown in the images below. First, the layouts of the rooms.

Second, the space required vs the cost of acquiring it.

In my experience, the Apple Vision is criticized for two things: being too big/heavy and being too expensive.

The data above shows that within the context of the operating room, the Apple Vision Pro is notable for being very small and very cheap. It is less than 1% of the cost and smaller than almost any piece of equipment.

When the iPhone was new it was considered a very expensive phone. At $500 most people, including, famously, Steve Ballmer, considered it too premium for the mass market. It turned out to be the most popular phone in most markets even when twice the price. It all depends on what it does and how easy it is to use.

For a hospital the cost of the Vision Pro is not insignificant. The paper considered what it can do, and, for that, it's a bargain.