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Error tolerance: an evaluation of residents' repeated motor coordination errors
Katherine E Law1, Eran C Gwillim2, Rebecca D Ray2
1Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 3214 Mechanical Engineering Building, 1513 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
American Journal of Surgery
|September 3, 2016
Summary
Motor coordination errors in laparoscopic surgery predict overall mistakes. Error tolerance, measured by failed attempts and recovery time, is a valid metric for assessing surgical performance.
Area of Science:
- Surgical Education
- Human Factors Engineering
- Medical Simulation
Background:
- Investigating the link between motor coordination errors and total errors in surgical performance.
- Utilizing a human factors framework to understand error dynamics.
- Hypothesizing a correlation between motor coordination errors and overall surgical errors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To validate error tolerance as a performance metric in surgical skills assessment.
- To analyze the relationship between specific motor coordination errors and overall performance.
- To evaluate the predictive value of error recovery approaches on surgical error load.
Main Methods:
- Assessing laparoscopic skills of residents (N=20) during simulated ventral hernia repair.
- Focusing on motor coordination errors during mesh or suture grasping.
- Defining error tolerance by repeated failed attempts and recovery time.
Main Results:
- Residents averaged 15.45 total errors and 1.70 motor coordination errors during mesh placement.
- Total errors significantly correlated with motor coordination errors (r=.572, P=.008).
- Recovery attempts for motor coordination errors correlated with total error load (r=.592, P=.02).
Conclusions:
- Motor coordination errors and recovery strategies effectively predict total error load in surgical residents.
- Error tolerance demonstrates validity as an assessment metric for surgical performance.
- Findings support the use of error tolerance in evaluating laparoscopic skills.
