The GPS for surgery: A user-centered evaluation of a navigation system for laparoscopic surgery

Unsafe surgical care has emerged as a significant public health concern, motivated by a high percentage of major complications happening during surgery, attributed to surgeons' skills and experience, and determined to be preventable.

This article presents APSurg, an Abdominal Positioning Surgical system designed to improve awareness and safety during laparoscopic surgery. The proposed system behaves like a GPS, offering an additional dynamic virtual reality view of the surgical field.

This work presents an evaluation study in terms of accuracy, effectiveness, and usability. Tests were conducted performing a localization task on an abdomen phantom in a simulated scenario. Results show a navigation accuracy below 5 mm. The task execution time was reduced by a 15% and the performed incision dimension was reduced by a 46%, with respect to a standard setup. A custom questionnaire showed a significant positive impact in exploiting APSurg during the surgical task execution.