From Augmented to Virtual Reality in Plastic Surgery: Blazing the Trail to a New Frontier.

The benefits of AR and VR are numerous to both patients and surgeons. Virtual reality has been shown to increase surgical precision and decrease operative time. Furthermore, it is effective for patient specific rehearsal (PsR) which uses the patient's exact anatomical data to rehearse the procedure before performing it on the actual patient. Taken together, AR/VR technology can improve patient outcomes, decrease operative times, and lower the burden of care on both patients and healthcare institutions.