Spatial Skill Training for Robot-assisted Surgery

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

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Spatial Learning
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Computerized spatial skill training; Other: Watching a presentation regarding robotic surgery

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.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 40
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Israel
  • Haifa, Israel
    • Rambam Health Care Campus

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 25 years to 40 years (ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Surgical Residents with no previous robotic surgery experience.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Non surgical residents.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: OTHER
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: SINGLE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: Study group; Surgical residents undergoing spatial skill training.	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.
SHAM_COMPARATOR: Control group; Surgical residents not undergoing spatial skill training.	Other: Watching a presentation regarding robotic surgery; Watching a 20-35 minute long power-point presentation regarding the history of robotic surgery.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Tissue piercing	Number of times tissue was pierced during suturing	up to 2 hours from enrollment
Tissue tearing	Number of times tissue was teared during suturing	up to 2 hours from enrollment

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Rambam Health Care Campus

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): January 1, 2017
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): September 1, 2017
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): January 1, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 24, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 27, 2018
• First Posted (ACTUAL): November 29, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): November 29, 2018
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 27, 2018
• Last Verified: November 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 0602-18-RMB

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No