Analysis and physics of laparoscopic intracorporeal square-knot tying

Square knots are often used in open surgery to approximate tissue borders or tie off tubular structures like vessels or ducts. Three common methods are used for surgical square-knot tying: one-hand tying, two-hand tying, and the instrument-tying technique. Two types of suture placements are studied in both the open and laparoscopic surgical fields. The first called equal length has suture segment ends placed at equal distances from the tying site. The second called unequal length has one suture end further away from the tying site than the other. Laparoscopic intracorporeal square-knot tying maneuvers are analyzed herein. Mechanical analysis of square-knot tying movements reveals that regardless of location or method used in construction, all square knots consist of 2 half-knots. For study purposes, these sets of movements are identified in laparoscopy as maneuver A and maneuver B. Further breakout of these maneuvers reveals that they consist of 5 motions. This study reveals that 16 different ways exist to place a square knot by means of the laparoscopic intracorporeal technique. It is likely that difficulty mastering this essential skill is not just the result of poor instrumentation, improper port placement, or the limitations of a 2-dimensional video image. It may also be attributed to mixing up the different square-knot tying techniques during random practice exercises. This is possible if the surgeon is ignorant of the technical variations present in what most people consider a simple task.