Purpose: Attempts to quantify hand movements of surgeons during arthroscopic surgery faced limited progress beyond motion analysis of hands and/or instruments. Surrogate markers such as procedure time have been used. The dimensionless squared jerk (DSJ) is a measure of deliberate hand movements. This study tests the ability of DSJ to differentiate novice and expert surgeons (construct validity) whilst performing simulated arthroscopic shoulder surgical tasks.
Methods: Six residents (novice group) and six consultants (expert group) participated in this study. Participants performed three validated tasks sequentially under the same experimental setup (one performance). Each participant had ten performances assessed. Hand movements were recorded with optical tracking system. The DSJ, time taken, total path length, multiple measures of acceleration, and number of movements were recorded.
Results: There were significant differences between novices and experts when assessed using time, number of movements with average and minimal acceleration threshold, and DSJ. No significant differences were observed in maximum acceleration, total path length, and number of movements with 10m/s2 acceleration threshold.
Conclusion: DSJ is an objective parameter that can differentiate novice and expert surgeons' simulated arthroscopic performances. We propose DSJ as an adjunct to more conventional parameters for arthroscopic surgery skills assessment.