Kil I, Eidt JF, Groff RE, Singapogu RB. Assessment of open surgery suturing skill: Simulator platform, force-based, and motion-based metrics.
Front Med (Lausanne) 2022;
9:897219. [PMID:
36111107 PMCID:
PMC9468321 DOI:
10.3389/fmed.2022.897219]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2022] [Accepted: 08/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Objective
This paper focuses on simulator-based assessment of open surgery suturing skill. We introduce a new surgical simulator designed to collect synchronized force, motion, video and touch data during a radial suturing task adapted from the Fundamentals of Vascular Surgery (FVS) skill assessment. The synchronized data is analyzed to extract objective metrics for suturing skill assessment.
Methods
The simulator has a camera positioned underneath the suturing membrane, enabling visual tracking of the needle during suturing. Needle tracking data enables extraction of meaningful metrics related to both the process and the product of the suturing task. To better simulate surgical conditions, the height of the system and the depth of the membrane are both adjustable. Metrics for assessment of suturing skill based on force/torque, motion, and physical contact are presented. Experimental data are presented from a study comparing attending surgeons and surgery residents.
Results
Analysis shows force metrics (absolute maximum force/torque in z-direction), motion metrics (yaw, pitch, roll), physical contact metric, and image-enabled force metrics (orthogonal and tangential forces) are found to be statistically significant in differentiating suturing skill between attendings and residents.
Conclusion and significance
The results suggest that this simulator and accompanying metrics could serve as a useful tool for assessing and teaching open surgery suturing skill.
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