Virtual reality in percutaneous coronary intervention: from coronary imaging and procedural planning to patient care
摘要
Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is one of the most frequently performed invasive procedures in medicine, yet it remains technically demanding, carries a long operator learning curve, exposes both patients and staff to ionising radiation, and is a recognised source of patient anxiety. Virtual reality (VR), which represent immersive, computer-generated environments experienced through a head-mounted display, has been proposed as a potential tool across the PCI pathway. This narrative review synthesises literature from the last five years on four domains in which VR has been applied to PCI: (1) operator training and skill acquisition; (2) patient-specific pre-procedural planning and rehearsal; (3) intraprocedural visualisation and guidance (where VR overlaps with augmented and mixed reality); and (4) patient-centred applications including periprocedural anxiety and pain management, education, and rehabilitation after myocardial infarction or revascularisation. The evidence is heterogeneous and dominated by small studies, feasibility reports, and a growing number of randomised trials in the patient-anxiety domain. Immersive VR reduces periprocedural anxiety and represents the most clinically mature application to date, although its analgesic effect is less consistent and it has not proven non-inferior to pharmacological sedation for pain; VR-based simulation can transfer skills to real catheterisation laboratory performance; and patient-specific VR can support planning in anatomically complex PCI. The principal barriers are the absence of robust haptic feedback, cost, limited validation, cybersickness, and a scarcity of outcome-driven randomised trials. VR is best understood not as a competitor to digital twins, physics-based simulation, or augmented/mixed reality, but as one complementary layer within a broader extended-reality ecosystem for coronary intervention. We outline priorities for future research, including standardised validation frameworks, integration with patient-specific digital twins, and adequately powered trials with clinical endpoints.