Background: The skull base exhibits a complex structure that contains numerous important nerves and blood vessels; furthermore, it is adjacent to important organs in the maxillofacial region. Skull base fractures are relatively common in cases involving traumatic brain injuries (TBI). Most skull base fractures are treated conservatively through absolute bed rest, which entails numerous challenges for nursing care. The use of a combination of virtual reality (VR) technology with 3D printing technology can offer a vivid and three-dimensional presentation of the location and type of skull base fractures alongside their relationships with important surrounding structures. This approach can increase patients' knowledge of skull base fractures and help patients better understand their treatment plans, thereby improving their treatment compliance, reducing complications, and alleviating the workload faced by nurses.
Methods: Patients with skull base fractures were randomly divided into a traditional nursing group and a combined VR and 3D printing nursing group. Evaluations were conducted to address multiple issues, including patients' disease awareness, treatment compliance, complications, psychological assessment, and nurses' work efficiency.
Results: Patients in the nursing group combining traditional nursing teams with VR and 3D printing were randomly divided into 30 cases each. An analysis of the general data collected regarding these two groups of patients revealed no statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of age, gender, level of education, fracture site, cause of injury, or time of admission (P > 0.05). The questionnaire survey that was used to investigate patients' awareness of skull base fractures indicated that participants in the observation group outperformed those in the control group in multiple dimensions (P > 0.05). In terms of treatment compliance, all the compliance indicators were significantly better among participants in the observation group than among those in the control group (P < 0.05). No statistically significant differences were observed between the observation group and the control group in terms of the rates at which various complications (such as increased intracranial hemorrhage, infection, and nerve injury) occurred (P > 0.05). The total psychological scores attained by patients in the observation group were superior to those attained by patients in the control group, as were their scores on multiple dimensions (P < 0.05). Moreover, the self-efficacy scale was used to evaluate the psychological states of nurses with the same number of years of work experience after different methods of health education were used. The results revealed that participants in the observation group obtained results that were better than those obtained by participants in the control group with regard to their total scores as well as their scores on multiple specific items (P < 0.05).
Conclusions: This research indicates that a nursing model that integrates VR with 3D printing can improve the quality of the care provided to patients with skull base fractures and should be considered for broader implementation in clinical nursing practice.
Keywords: 3D printing; Precision nursing; Skull base fracture; Virtual reality.
© 2025. The Author(s).