Sensorized Vascular High-Fidelity Physical Simulator for Robot-Assisted Surgery Training: A Multisite Pilot...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Surgical Simulation Technology
• Robotics in Medicine

Background:

• Robot-Assisted Surgery (RAS) lacks haptic feedback, complicating skill acquisition and potentially leading to adverse events.
• Objective assessment of surgical skills in RAS is crucial for improving training and patient safety.
• Current training methods may not adequately prepare surgeons for the nuances of RAS, particularly regarding tactile feedback.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a novel surgical simulator's ability to discriminate between different levels of surgical expertise.
• To explore potential differences in performance and skill assessment across various surgical specialties using the simulator.
• To validate the simulator's realism and usability for surgical training applications.

Main Methods:

• Development of a simulator replicating vascular and adipose tissue with integrated resistive stretching sensors to measure deformation.
• 30 participants (21 general surgeons, 2 thoracic surgeons, 4 gynecologists, 3 urologists) performed standardized surgical tasks.
• Objective measurement of tissue deformation and subjective assessment via questionnaires on face/content validity and usability.

Main Results:

• The simulator demonstrated discriminant validity, with significant differences noted in maximum and mean deformation values (p<0.05).
• Significant differences in performance were observed between urologists and general surgeons (p=0.0167), and urologists and gynecologists (p=0.0495).
• High positive responses for face validity (80%) and content validity (90%) indicate good simulator realism and relevance.

Conclusions:

• The developed surgical simulator effectively differentiates between surgical expertise levels based on objective tissue deformation metrics.
• The simulator shows promise in identifying performance variations across different surgical specialties.
• Further research will focus on evaluating the simulator's efficacy in actual surgical training programs.