Metrics for Evaluating Surgical Microscope Usage During Myringotomy

Abstract Although teaching and learning surgical microscope manoeuvring is a fundamental step in middle ear surgical training, currently there is no objective method to teach or assess this skill. This thesis presents an experimental study designed to implement and test sets of metrics capable of numerically evaluating microscope manoeuvrability and qualitatively assessing surgical expertise of a subject during a middle ear surgery called myringotomy. The experiment involved performing a myringotomy on a fixed cadaveric ear. As participants, experienced ear-nose-throat (ENT) surgeons and ENT surgical residents were invited. While performing the procedure, their microscope manoeuvring motions were captured as translational and angular coordinates using an optical tracker. These data were analyzed in terms of motion path length, velocity, acceleration, jitter, manoeuvring volume, smoothness, rotation and time. Participants’ hand motion, body posture and microscopic view were also video recorded to qualitatively assess their surgical expertise. Several metrics were statistically identified as discriminatory. These metrics will be incorporated into a myringotomy surgical simulator to train ENT residents.

Name thesis:degree_name

M Eng Sci

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

The University of Western Ontario

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Shamsil, Arefin M

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Hanif M. Ladak

• Surgical microscope
• performance metrics
• myringotomy
• training

Language dc:language.iso

en_ca

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/30865

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/30865