Ergonomic evaluation between laparoscopic and robotic surgery based on EMG

In recent years, robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery (RALS) has been widely used, but ergonomics has not been well described. We conducted a study based on the “MicroHand S” robot system developed by our laboratory to evaluate the biomechanical stress of the surgeon performing robotic surgery and studied the difference from traditional laparoscopic surgery (TLS). Surface electromyography (sEMG) was used to quantify the activation level of the muscle groups involved in the operation. Place the EMG electrodes on the flexor carpi radialis (FCR), brachioradialis (BR), biceps brachii (BB), medial deltoid (MD). The performance of traditional laparoscopic and robot-assisted surgical operations in performing suture knotting tasks was studied. The iEMG and first-order fitting slope of MPF were used for comparative analysis. Our results show that: Compared to TLS, FCR and BR, which related to wrist movement, tend to be more used, MD related to shoulder movement was less used in the RALS (p<0.05). There was no significant difference in muscle fatigue (p>0.05). The research content of this article helps to better understand the interaction between surgeons and surgical robots, which may make surgeons can operate more comfortably and safely.