VIRTUAL REALITY AS A METHOD FOR STUDYING THE FUNCTIONAL ANATOMY OF THE FEMALE PELVIC FLOOR (Atena Editora)

Abstract

Virtual reality is increasingly present in the academic world, especially in the health area, where it has proven to be an alternative and effective method for teaching, especially in human anatomy, simplifying the study of more complex content, such as the female pelvic floor. The objectives of this research were to review female pelvic functional anatomy and explore its study methods, in particular the use of virtual reality, comparing it to traditional teaching methods. The methodology involved a bibliographic search in databases such as Pubmed, Scielo and Google Scholar, resulting in the analysis of 39 articles, books and websites; published between 1995 and 2023, in English and Portuguese. The results highlighted the evolution of anatomy teaching techniques up to the present time, when the use of virtual reality emerges as an alternative methodology that overcomes the disadvantages of cadaveric dissection, while preserving its positive points, such as the stereoscopic view of the anatomical structures. The complexity of the female pelvic anatomy represents an obstacle to learning, but virtual reality enters this scenario as a solution, capable of facilitating the understanding of the structures of this region in an immersive and student-focused way. For exemplification purposes, how an application that uses virtual reality to teach the female pelvic floor works was explored. It was concluded that virtual reality is an excellent method for learning human anatomy, such as the female pelvic floor, which, despite being complicated, can be fully studied with the help of this effective technology.