BACKGROUND The outcomes of the implementation of augmented reality (AR) in anatomical education have not been reviewed so far. We performed a narrative review of the literature concerning these outcomes. METHODS We searched in the databases PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane, ERIC, CINAHL plus and Web of Science for papers with the aim to explore the outcomes of the implementation of AR in anatomical education. From each paper, we extracted the following data: authors, year of publication, type of study (comparative or not), number of participants, level of outcome according to Kirkpatrick hierarchy, acceptability of AR, impact on examinations performance, ability to facilitate understanding of spatial organization of structures and to motivate students to learn anatomy. RESULTS Seven papers were eligible for analysis. There were five comparative and two non-comparative studies. Three studies evaluated only students' perceptions about AR, while four papers assessed their examinations performance after the application of AR. Generally, AR was proved a highly acceptable and enjoyable anatomy teaching tool. It had remarkable efficacy in terms of helping students understand three-dimensional organization of structures and achieve satisfactory examinations results. CONCLUSIONS Although the research concerning the implementation of AR in anatomical education is relatively limited, there are promising results regarding the teaching potential of AR. These results could encourage anatomy educators to include this tool in their teaching methods. Randomized controlled studies are needed to prove if AR could effectively replace or supplement other anatomy pedagogy methods.

中文翻译：

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增强现实在解剖学教育中的作用：概述。

背景技术迄今为止，尚未对在解剖学教育中实施增强现实（AR）的结果进行审查。我们对有关这些结果的文献进行了叙述性回顾。方法我们在PubMed，Scopus，Cochrane，ERIC，CINAHL plus和Web of Science数据库中搜索了论文，目的是探讨在解剖学教育中实施AR的成果。从每篇论文中，我们提取了以下数据：作者，出版年份，研究类型（比较与否），参与者人数，根据Kirkpatrick等级划分的结果水平，AR的可接受性，对考试成绩的影响，促进理解的能力的空间组织结构，以激发学生学习解剖学。结果七篇论文符合分析条件。有五项比较研究和两项非比较研究。三项研究仅评估学生对AR的看法，而四篇论文评估了应用AR后的考试成绩。通常，AR被证明是一种高度可接受且令人愉快的解剖学教学工具。它在帮助学生理解结构的三维组织和取得令人满意的考试结果方面具有显着的功效。结论尽管关于在解剖学教育中实施AR的研究相对有限，但是关于AR的教学潜力却有可喜的成果。这些结果可能会鼓励解剖学教育者将此工具纳入其教学方法。