Standardizing Language in Laparoscopic Surgery (SLL)

Background

Continuous communication between the primary surgeon and assistant(s) during laparoscopic surgery is essential. The primary surgeon is rarely in direct control of the laparoscope and visual field. The use of a standard vernacular during surgery to provide clear instructions across all surgical centers is currently not employed. As the theoretical benefits of this are clear, a national survey produced a lexicon of commands1. Despite making intuitive sense, there is presently no evidence to demonstrate a benefit from using this standardized language during laparoscopic surgery. We aim to show that in doing so, there will be a significant improvement in speed and efficiency when performing a complex laparoscopic task.

Objective

To explore whether standardization of communication between the primary surgeon and the assistant in a simulated laparoscopic environment decreases the time needed to perform a complex task.

Materials and Methods

All subjects will provide demographic data, which will be collected through a brief questionnaire. This questionnaire will collect information regarding level of training or years of practice, as well as handedness. Personal identifying information (PII) will not be collected.

Subjects will be block randomized into control and intervention groups by random number generation. Block randomization will preserve equivalent distribution of level of training or years in practice into each group. Secondarily, handedness will be evenly distributed among groups, but not superseding level of training or years in practice.

The intervention group will receive a presentation on the standardized laparoscopic lexicon (SLL) (Mehdizadeh et al). The presentation will focus on sections 1-3 (surgical roles, camera commands and instrument commands).

The control group will receive no pre-task presentation.

Members within each group will be assigned a laparoscopic trainer by random allocation (blinded selection of card denoting station assignment). Through this, each trainer will have 2 subjects of the same group randomly assigned to it. These subjects will be referred to as the "primary surgeon" and "assistant". Assignment of initial roles will be done randomly. A member in each pair will be assigned the role denoted on a card he/she chooses blindly.

Pairs will be provided the task of placing a ball into a bag and closing the opening through tensioning the drawstring. This task must be performed using only laparoscopic graspers and will be timed by invigilators.

The ball will be approximately the same diameter as the bag opening and large enough to require camera adjustments. This task is not a commonly practiced laparoscopic skill such as suturing or knot tying (therefore should be less influenced by level of training) and should require communication between "primary surgeon" and "assistant" to accomplish in a timely fashion. The task is complex and should require sufficient time to detect a difference between groups.

Data collection within each group will include each pair's time to completion of the task and level of training/years in practice of "primary surgeon" and "assistant". Invigilators will track the usage of SLL during the task in both groups.

After a break, the roles will be reversed and the task repeated. The same data will be collected.