Camera navigation and tissue manipulation; are these laparoscopic skills related?

Area of Science:

• Laparoscopic surgery simulation
• Surgical skills assessment

Background:

• Clinically based expertise in laparoscopic tissue manipulation is often assumed to correlate with angled laparoscope navigation skills.
• The SimSurgery SEP platform was used to investigate the relationship between these two skill sets.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between laparoscopic tissue manipulation expertise and angled laparoscope navigation skills.
• To establish face and construct validity for the place arrow (PA) and camera navigation (CN) tasks on the SimSurgery SEP.

Main Methods:

• Thirty-three novices and 33 experienced surgeons performed PA and CN tasks on two hardware platforms.
• Participants rated the realism and didactic value of the SimSurgery SEP on five-point scales.

Main Results:

• Experienced participants rated both tasks as realistic and the SimSurgery SEP as a user-friendly training environment.
• Experienced participants performed tasks faster with shorter tip trajectories.
• Task completion time and tip trajectories correlated across tasks for the combined group, but not always within groups.

Conclusions:

• Performance in laparoscopic tissue manipulation does not automatically equate to proficiency in angled laparoscope navigation, and vice versa.
• Training and assessment of basic laparoscopic skills should address these tasks independently.
• Further research is needed to define specific skills and proficiency levels for various laparoscopic procedures.