Effect of different warm-up strategies on simulated laparoscopy performance: a randomized controlled trial

The objective of this trial was to assess which type of warm-up has the highest effect on virtual reality (VR) laparoscopy performance. The following warm-up strategies were applied: a hands-on exercise (group 1), a cognitive exercise (group 2), and no warm-up (control, group 3).

This is a 3-arm randomized controlled trial.

The trial was conducted at the department of surgery of the University Hospital Basel in Switzerland.

A total of 94 participants, all laypersons without any surgical or VR experience, completed the study.

A total of 96 participants were randomized, 31 to group 1, 31 to group 2, and 32 to group 3. There were 2 postrandomization exclusions. In the multivariate analysis, we found no evidence that the intervention had an effect on VR performance as represented by 6 calculated subscores of accuracy, time, and path length for (1) camera manipulation and (2) hand-eye coordination combined with 2-handed maneuvers (p = 0.795). Neither the comparison of the average of the intervention groups (groups 1 and 2) vs control (group 3) nor the pairwise comparisons revealed any significant differences in VR performance, neither multivariate nor univariate. VR performance improved with increasing performance score in the cognitive exercise warm-up (iPad 3D puzzle) for accuracy, time, and path length in the camera navigation task.

We were unable to show an effect of the 2 tested warm-up strategies on VR performance in laypersons. We are currently designing a follow-up study including surgeons rather than laypersons with a longer warm-up exercise, which is more closely related to the final task.