Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chen, Zhen, Xu, Qing, Wu, Jinlin, Yang, Biao, Zhai, Yuhao, Guo, Geng, Zhang, Jing, Ding, Yinlu, Navab, Nassir, Luo, Jiebo
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.01775
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866915593906552832
author Chen, Zhen
Xu, Qing
Wu, Jinlin
Yang, Biao
Zhai, Yuhao
Guo, Geng
Zhang, Jing
Ding, Yinlu
Navab, Nassir
Luo, Jiebo
author_facet Chen, Zhen
Xu, Qing
Wu, Jinlin
Yang, Biao
Zhai, Yuhao
Guo, Geng
Zhang, Jing
Ding, Yinlu
Navab, Nassir
Luo, Jiebo
contents Foundation models in video generation are demonstrating remarkable capabilities as potential world models for simulating the physical world. However, their application in high-stakes domains like surgery, which demand deep, specialized causal knowledge rather than general physical rules, remains a critical unexplored gap. To systematically address this challenge, we present SurgVeo, the first expert-curated benchmark for video generation model evaluation in surgery, and the Surgical Plausibility Pyramid (SPP), a novel, four-tiered framework tailored to assess model outputs from basic appearance to complex surgical strategy. On the basis of the SurgVeo benchmark, we task the advanced Veo-3 model with a zero-shot prediction task on surgical clips from laparoscopic and neurosurgical procedures. A panel of four board-certified surgeons evaluates the generated videos according to the SPP. Our results reveal a distinct "plausibility gap": while Veo-3 achieves exceptional Visual Perceptual Plausibility, it fails critically at higher levels of the SPP, including Instrument Operation Plausibility, Environment Feedback Plausibility, and Surgical Intent Plausibility. This work provides the first quantitative evidence of the chasm between visually convincing mimicry and causal understanding in surgical AI. Our findings from SurgVeo and the SPP establish a crucial foundation and roadmap for developing future models capable of navigating the complexities of specialized, real-world healthcare domains.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_01775
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle How Far Are Surgeons from Surgical World Models? A Pilot Study on Zero-shot Surgical Video Generation with Expert Assessment
Chen, Zhen
Xu, Qing
Wu, Jinlin
Yang, Biao
Zhai, Yuhao
Guo, Geng
Zhang, Jing
Ding, Yinlu
Navab, Nassir
Luo, Jiebo
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Artificial Intelligence
Multimedia
Foundation models in video generation are demonstrating remarkable capabilities as potential world models for simulating the physical world. However, their application in high-stakes domains like surgery, which demand deep, specialized causal knowledge rather than general physical rules, remains a critical unexplored gap. To systematically address this challenge, we present SurgVeo, the first expert-curated benchmark for video generation model evaluation in surgery, and the Surgical Plausibility Pyramid (SPP), a novel, four-tiered framework tailored to assess model outputs from basic appearance to complex surgical strategy. On the basis of the SurgVeo benchmark, we task the advanced Veo-3 model with a zero-shot prediction task on surgical clips from laparoscopic and neurosurgical procedures. A panel of four board-certified surgeons evaluates the generated videos according to the SPP. Our results reveal a distinct "plausibility gap": while Veo-3 achieves exceptional Visual Perceptual Plausibility, it fails critically at higher levels of the SPP, including Instrument Operation Plausibility, Environment Feedback Plausibility, and Surgical Intent Plausibility. This work provides the first quantitative evidence of the chasm between visually convincing mimicry and causal understanding in surgical AI. Our findings from SurgVeo and the SPP establish a crucial foundation and roadmap for developing future models capable of navigating the complexities of specialized, real-world healthcare domains.
title How Far Are Surgeons from Surgical World Models? A Pilot Study on Zero-shot Surgical Video Generation with Expert Assessment
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Artificial Intelligence
Multimedia
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.01775