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Surgical Hand Tracking in Open Surgery Using a Versatile Motion Sensing System: Are We There Yet?
Bradley Genovese1, Steven Yin, Sohail Sareh
1Division of Cardiac Surgery and †Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
The American Surgeon
|October 26, 2016
Summary
Objective surgical skill assessment is crucial. Hand-motion tracking effectively differentiates novice from expert surgeons by analyzing movement patterns, offering a new tool for surgical training and proficiency evaluation.
Area of Science:
- Surgical Education
- Biomedical Engineering
- Medical Simulation
Background:
- Increasing need for objective assessment of surgical technical proficiency due to evolving work hour limitations.
- Previous electromagnetic hand-motion analysis showed limited correlation with expertise (time, movement count).
- Hand-motion tracking offers potential for objective evaluation of surgical skills.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the efficacy of hand-motion tracking analysis in determining surgical skill proficiency.
- To identify objective metrics for differentiating surgical expertise levels.
- To explore the potential of motion analysis in surgical training paradigms.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a nine-degree-of-freedom sensor mounted on a needle driver.
- Subjects (Novices, Trainees, Experts) performed a large vessel patch anastomosis on phantom tissue.
- Analyzed instrument path length, total movements, absolute velocity, and total time using statistical tests (ANOVA, Welch's t test).
Main Results:
- Expert subjects showed significantly fewer total movements and decreased instrument path length compared to Novices.
- Expert subjects demonstrated significantly less total time to complete the anastomosis task.
- No significant differences in absolute velocity were observed between the groups.
Conclusions:
- Significant differences in motion patterns identified between Novice and Expert subjects.
- Hand-motion tracking shows promise as an objective tool for assessing surgical proficiency.
- Further research in larger cohorts is warranted to explore predictive value in training.
