Development and validation of a measurement system for laparoscopic surgical procedures in practical surgery training

This paper describes the development and validation of measurement system for laparoscopic surgical procedures in practical surgery training. In order to measure motion of surgical instruments in a practical surgery training using cadaver or live animal, a motion capture (MoCap) based simple measurement system is developed. Since this system has simple configuration and requires only origin definition, it is easy to install in operating room. By attaching individual marker set to each surgical instrument, this system can track multiple surgical instruments simultaneously and can detect exchange of them during the training. Accuracy verification tests were conducted in the wet-lab training, and measurement success rate and positional error were evaluated. Preliminary measurement experiments in the cadaver surgical training were also conducted, and the movement of surgical instruments in 8 cases of nephrectomy were recorded. The questionnaire survey conducted in the experiments confirmed that this system has minor impact on the operation of surgical instruments.