Design of a Dynamic Force Measurement System for Training and Evaluation of Suture Surgical Skills

摘要

The aim of this study is to present theSurgeForcesystem, a tissue handling training device for analysis of dynamic force applied to the tissue and objective assessment of basic surgical skills during the suture process. TheSurgeForcesystem consists of a mechanical base formed by two platforms joint with three stainless steel springs and a three axial digital accelerometer attached to the upper platform, which detects the dynamic force caused by a surgeon when performing a suture task over a synthetic tissue pad. Accelerometer data is sent to a control unit where preprocessing to transform the raw data into a force signal is done, and then, the force signal is sent to a computer application, which register the force exerted over the synthetic tissue pad. For validation, 17 participants (6 surgeons and 11 medical students) performed three simple interrupted sutures with knot tying using theSurgeForcesystem. Ten force-based metrics were proposed to evaluate their performance during the suturing task. Results of the validation showed statistical differences in 8 of 10 force-based parameters for assessment of basic surgical skills during the suture task. TheSurgeForcesystem demonstrated its capacity to differentiate force-based performance of surgeons and medical students. TheSurgeForcesystem has been successfully validated. This system was able to distinguish force performance between experts and novices, showing its potential to distinguish surgeons with basic suture skills from those who are not yet prepared.