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The added value of virtual reality technology and force feedback for surgical training simulators

Issue title: IEA 2012: 18th World congress on Ergonomics - Designing a sustainable future

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Zhang, L. | Grosdemouge, C. | Arikatla, V. S. | Ahn, W. | Sankaranarayanan, G. | De, S. | Jones, D. | Schwaitzberg, S. | Cao, C.G.L.

Affiliations: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tufts University, 200 College Avenue, Medford, MA, USA | Center for Modeling, Simulation and Imaging in Medicine, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, USA | Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, TCC 140, Boston, MA, USA | Department of Surgery, Cambridge Health Alliance Hospital, 1493 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA, USA

Note: [] Corresponding author. E-mail: caroline.cao@tufts.edu

Keywords: surgical training, virtual reality (VR), virtual basic laparoscopic surgical trainer (VBLaST), fundamentals of laparoscopic skills (FLS), force feedback

DOI: 10.3233/WOR-2012-0453-2288

Journal: Work, vol. 41, no. Supplement 1, pp. 2288-2292, 2012

Published: 2012
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Abstract

Laparoscopic surgery requires more specialized training of the surgeons than traditional open surgery. The Virtual Basic Laparoscopic Surgical Trainer (VBLaST) is being developed as a virtual version of the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Skills (FLS) trainer. This study assessed the current haptic and virtual reality (VR) technology of a virtual peg transfer task of the VBLaST, based on the subjective preference of surgeons and their objective task performance measures. Twenty-one surgical residents, fellows and attendings performed a peg-transfer task in the FLS and the VBLaST. Each subject performed 10 trials on each simulator. Results showed that subjects performed significantly better on the FLS than on the VBLaST. Subjects showed a significant learning effect on both simulators, but with an accelerated improvement on the VBLaST. Even so, 81% of the subjects preferred the FLS over the VBLaST for surgical training which could be attributed to the novelty of the VR technology and existing deficiencies of the haptic interface. Despite the subjective preference for the physical simulator, the performance results indicate an added value of VR and haptics in surgical training, which is expected to be demonstrated in more surgically relevant tasks such as suturing and knot-tying.

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