Adaptation to a dynamic visual perspective in laparoscopy through training in the cutting task.

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic surgery demands of surgeons special skills acquired only through practice. Laparoscopic training systems traditionally have an optical system that, once positioned, remains fixed and cannot refresh the perspective unless the task is interrupted and the camera repositioned. During a surgery, the visual perspective changes constantly to relocate the surgical target. This difference is a limitation for any novice surgeon. This report proposes the use of a mechatronic system that allows the trainee to handle optics dynamically during training in the cutting task and thereby adapt to dynamic relocation of the surgical target. METHODS: The study was conducted in two phases. The first phase involved using fixed optics to cut a circle drawn on a piece of cloth. The second phase involved the same cutting task but with the visual perspective changed dynamically by the user via a mechatronic assistant. RESULTS: The data show that by adapting to dynamic optics, medical trainees can quickly and easily handle and locate the task with real-time changes in visual perspective and can also improve task quality. A significant statistical difference was found between the two methods performed (p < 0.0025). Variance analysis also was applied to the mean values of the scores achieved by both groups (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: A new laparoscopic training method has been developed. It applies real-time dynamic optics that trainees assist by means of a mechatronic device harnessed to their body. This new training tool allows resident trainees to adapt quickly to the work environment of dynamic optics and thus enter the surgical scenario more rapidly and confidently after mastering the visual-spatial aspect of the laparoscopic approach.

Thirty-degree optical system for laparoscopic training.

The training systems used by starting laparoscopic surgeons for visual and motor adaptation employ zero-degree optics. However, as new laparoscopic surgery techniques make such optics obsolete, there is a need to design training and adaptation tools with other optics.