Analysis of surgical motions in minimally invasive surgery using complexity theory
by Ikechukwu Ohu; Sohyung Cho; Ahmed Zihni; Jaime A. Cavallo; Michael M. Awad
International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology (IJBET), Vol. 17, No. 1, 2015

Abstract: Traditional Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) training paradigm in which interns and junior residents perform operations under the supervision of faculty surgeons lacks objective means of assessing surgical skills. This paper studies novel real-time measures that can dynamically quantify surgical motions. In this study, the proposed measures were tested through two phases of experimental study. In the first phase, ten volunteered subjects who have no prior experience of MIS completed three trials of a surgical exercise using a laparoscopic instrument on which a motion sensor was attached. In the second phase, an MIS surgeon performed three standard surgical exercises with five replications. Then, time-delay and Hurst exponent analysis were used to measure the degree of synchronisation in surgical motions. As the results, improvement in surgical motions was observed such that the range and thickness of time-delay plots are reduced while Hurst exponents increase, as the subjects gain experience.

Online publication date: Sun, 18-Jan-2015

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology (IJBET):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com