Spatial Skill Training for Robot-assisted Surgery

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Spatial Learning
• Interventions: Other: Watching a presentation regarding robotic surgery; Other: Computerized spatial skill training

• Registration Number: NCT03758586
• Lead Sponsor: Rambam Health Care Campus

Brief 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.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2017-01-01
• Primary Completion: 2017-09-01
• Study Completion: 2018-01-01
• Status Verified: 2018-11
• Study First Submitted: 2018-11-24
• Study First Submitted QC: 2018-11-27
• Last Update Submitted: 2018-11-27
• Study First Posted: 2018-11-29
• Last Update Posted: 2018-11-29

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 40

Inclusion Criteria

• Surgical Residents with no previous robotic surgery experience.

Exclusion Criteria

• Non surgical residents.

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Control group	Watching a presentation regarding robotic surgery	Surgical residents not undergoing spatial skill training.
Study group	Computerized spatial skill training	Surgical residents undergoing spatial skill training.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Tissue piercing	up to 2 hours from enrollment	Number of times tissue was pierced during suturing
Tissue tearing	up to 2 hours from enrollment	Number of times tissue was teared during suturing

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Rambam health care campus; 🇮🇱 Haifa, Israel