NCT03758586

Spatial Skill Training for Robot-assisted Surgery

An Efficient Single-Session Spatial Skill Trainer for Robot-assisted Surgery: A Randomized Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 40 (actual)
• Sponsor: Rambam Health Care Campus · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 25 Years – 40 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Surgical residents from a single tertiary medical center were divided into 2 groups. All residents performed 2 tasks on a Da Vinci robotic simulator system after which they were either given a real training session in spatial skills (study group) or shown a short presentation regarding robotic surgery. After training/watching the presentation, they repeated the for mentioned tasks on the robotic simulator. Improvement in surgeon performance, especially regarding tissue damage was documented.

Detailed description

Importance: Robot-assisted surgery is becoming the mainstay of modern surgery. Efficient training techniques are essential for enhanced performance. Optimal performance during a surgical task is key to successful surgery and minimal adverse events. Objective: To introduce and examine a single session of spatial skill training as an efficient means of improving surgical suturing performance in robot-assisted surgery. Design: Forty-one surgical residents will be randomly assigned to training and control conditions. (1) participants will perform two da-Vinci skills simulator (dVSS) tasks to determine baseline performance. (2) the training group will undergo computer-based simulator training of spatial skills while the control group will engage in a neutral activity. (3) two dVSS tasks will be performed within 2 days of training completion to evaluate post-training performance. The experiment will be conducted until December 2018. Participants: A convenience sample comprised of 41 surgical residents with non-robotic surgical suturing skills.

Conditions

• Spatial Learning

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Computerized spatial skill training	The spatial skills training session consisted of six practice trials that were run in a sequence. The objective of each practice was to manipulate the simulated robotic arm to grab the cubes and move them to a desired location using keyboard keys. The participant was required to reach a decision based on the visual-spatial information, before initiating subsequent movements of the simulated robotic arm. Each practice trial presented an initial state of the cubes in front of the robotic arm, and a target position of the cubes.
OTHER	Watching a presentation regarding robotic surgery	Watching a 20-35 minute long power-point presentation regarding the history of robotic surgery.

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-01-01
• Primary completion: 2017-09-01
• Completion: 2018-01-01
• First posted: 2018-11-29
• Last updated: 2018-11-29

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Israel