Spatial Skill Training for Robot-assisted Surgery

NCT03758586 — Not applicable, Completed, 40 participants, Rambam Health Care Campus

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

Registry	NCT03758586
Status	Completed
Phase	Not applicable
Study type	Interventional; randomized, parallel, masking: single, other
Enrollment	40 (Actual)
Sponsor	Rambam Health Care Campus (Other)
Conditions	Spatial Learning
Interventions	Computerized spatial skill training, Watching a presentation regarding robotic surgery (Other)
Dates	start 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 in Israel

-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.

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+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.

+Arms and interventions

Arm	Type	Interventions	Description
Study group	Active comparator	Other: Computerized spatial skill training	Surgical residents undergoing spatial skill training.
Control group	Sham comparator	Other: Watching a presentation regarding robotic surgery	Surgical residents not undergoing spatial skill training.

Computerized spatial skill training (Other): 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.
Watching a presentation regarding robotic surgery (Other): Watching a 20-35 minute long power-point presentation regarding the history of robotic surgery.

+Outcome measures

Primary outcomes

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

+Eligibility

Sex: All, ages: 25 Years to 40 Years, accepts healthy volunteers

Inclusion Criteria:

* Surgical Residents with no previous robotic surgery experience.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Non surgical residents.

+Locations (1)

Facility	City	Country	Status
Rambam health care campus	Haifa	Israel

+Investigators

Roy Lauterbach, MD, Principal investigator, Rambam Health Care Campus