Purpose or Case Report: Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies hold potential for extensive applications in entertainment and simulation of healthcare procedures. These technologies offer solutions to various healthcare challenges including treatment planning, pain management, and surgical simulations, leading to more efficient and cost-effective patient care. Ongoing advancements have made VR and AR more accessible, particularly in medical education, procedural planning, and therapeutic interventions.

This scoping review aims to examine the current state of knowledge regarding applications of VR and AR as a clinical tool, interventional aid, or alternative management approach in radiology for pediatric and adult populations to guide further research, inform evidence-based guidelines, and identify gaps in existing literature.

This review followed the PICO (Patient, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) framework, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), and Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy (STARD) to assess the reporting quality of referenced literature. The initial search was conducted in MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library, supplemented with manual screening of reference lists. The search terms were adapted for specific databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library) and focused on the intersection of VR and AR with diagnostic imaging in pediatric and adult populations.

Out of 1,120 references, 14 primary studies were included in this systematic review, encompassing a total of 478 patients. 6/14 (42.9%) focused on children only and 8/14 (57.1%) on children and adults. The studies featured prospective (N=12) and retrospective (N=2) research designs mainly exploring VR and AR applications in preoperative planning, surgical navigation, intraoperative support, pain management, and patient education. The use of VR and AR in radiology in the selected primary papers showed promising results in improving patient experiences and surgical outcomes and indicated potential benefits in terms of patient satisfaction, reduced pain and anxiety, and enhanced surgical precision.

This scoping review highlights potential clinical applications of VR and AR in radiology in pediatric and adult populations. However, more rigorous research is needed to assess cost-effectiveness of these technologies. Standardized reporting guidelines like STARD should be more consistently followed in future studies to enhance research reporting quality.
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