Using the Waseda Bioinstrumentation System WB-1R to analyze Surgeon’s performance during laparoscopy - towards the development of a global performance index -

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has become very common in recent years, thanks to the many advantages it provides for patients. Since it is difficult for surgeons to learn and master this technique, several training methods and metrics have been proposed, both to improve the surgeon's abilities and also to assess his/her skills. This paper presents the use of the WB-1R (Waseda bioinstrumentation system no.1 refined), which was developed at Waseda University, Tokyo, to investigate and analyze a surgeon's movements and performance. Specifically, the system can measure the movements of the head, the arms, and the hands, as well as several physiological parameters. In this paper we present our experiment to evaluate a surgeon's ability to handle surgical instruments and his/her depth perception using a laparoscopic view. Our preliminary analysis of a subset of the acquired data (i.e. comfort of the subjects; the amount of time it took o complete each exercise; and respiration) clearly shows that the expert surgeon and the group of medical students perform very differently. Therefore, WB-1R (or, better, a newer version tailored specifically for use in the operating room) could provide important additional information to help assess the experience and performance of surgeons, thus leading to the development of a global performance index for surgeons during MIS. These analyses and modeling, moreover, are an important step towards the automatization and the robotic assistance of the surgical gesture.