ASIT Poster Presentations

Aim: To evaluate whole body, forearm, hand and surgical tool movements during various stitching tasks in experienced surgeons and final year medical students. Objectives: To determine the time required to complete each surgical task. To analyse the body centre of mass, neck, elbow, forearm and hand kinematics, the distance travelled by the surgical tool to determine the reliability, repeatability and compare differences of the aforementioned objective measures within and between surgeons and students. Method: A Cross-sectional 3D motion analysis pilot study designed. Five volunteer surgeons and five medical students were included. Retro-reflective markers were affixed to each participant’s skin on specific palpated anatomical landmarks and on a silicon suturing pad and surgical tools. Result: Experienced surgeons required significantly less time to complete each task. Their body centre of mass as well as their neck ROM were significantly smaller. The surgical tool also travelled less distance when used by surgeons (p[less than]0.05). Repeatability was higher in surgeons (ICC>0.70) compared to students (ICC>0.55). Conclusion: It is feasible to evaluate the surgical competences of junior surgeons from the very earliest years of their training. Optical Motion Capture System is a promising tool in Surgical Skills Teaching & Training.