Correlative Evaluation of Mental and Physical Workload of Laparoscopic Surgeons Based on Surface Electromyography and Eye-tracking Signals

Abstract

Surgeons’ mental and physical workloads are major focuses of operating room (OR) ergonomics, and studies on this topic have generally focused on either mental workload or physical workload, ignoring the interaction between them. Previous studies have shown that physically demanding work may affect mental performance and may be accompanied by impaired mental processing and decreased performance. In this study, 14 participants were recruited to perform laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) procedures in a virtual simulator. Surface electromyography (sEMG) signals of the bilateral trapezius, bicipital, brachioradialis and flexor carpi ulnaris (FCU) muscles and eye-tracking signals were acquired during the experiment. The results showed that the least square means of muscle activity during the LC phases of surgery in an all-participants mixed effects model were 0.79, 0.81, and 0.98, respectively. The observed muscle activities in the different phases exhibited some similarity, while marked differences were found between the forearm bilateral muscles. Regarding mental workload, significant differences were observed in pupil dilation between the three phases of laparoscopic surgery. The mental and physical workloads of laparoscopic surgeons do not appear to be generally correlated, although a few significant negative correlations were found. This result further indicates that mental fatigue does markedly interfere with surgeons’ operating movements.

Stressinduzierte vegetative Antwortreaktion des ärztlichen Personals bei herzchirurgischen Eingriffen

“…Bei Stress steigt die Hf an und die HRV-Parameter weisen geringere Ausprägungen auf [2,39]. Auch die Art des durchgeführten operativen Eingriffes [7,14,18,38,44] und die Assistenz eines leitenden Chirurgen [13] hat Einfluss auf das Stressniveau und den Beanspruchungsgrad des Operateurs. So ist das Stresslevel bei chirurgischen Eingriffen ohne den Einsatz einer Herz-Lungen-Maschine ("off-pump") höher als bei solchen mit Herz-Lungen-Maschine ("onpump") [6] Objective.…”

A randomized controlled trial of three‐dimensional versus two‐dimensional imaging system on duration of surgery and mental workload for laparoscopic gastropexies in dogs

“…Assessment of surgeon mental and physical workload can be difficult to define but are important concepts to consider as studies have shown that surgeons have musculoskeletal pain due to muscle tension and maintaining awkward poses for long periods of time in the operating room 12,13 . Additionally, mental workload can lead to job dissatisfaction and burnout 14 .…”

Usability Study of the User-Interface of Intensive Care Ventilators Based on User Test and Eye-Tracking Signals

“…Eye movement features can be used as an adjunct to standardize evaluation methods to overcome the difficulties described above. Eye tracking has already been used in medical fields regarding the usability of modern anesthesia ventilators evaluation [ 23 ], in the workload of laparoscopic surgeons [ 24 ], in nursing education [ 25 ], and in the ergonomic evaluation of ventilator [ 26 ]. Particularly for pupil dilatation, the technique has been shown to be sensitive to task difficulty and workload [ 27 , 28 ].…”

“…Particularly for pupil dilatation, the technique has been shown to be sensitive to task difficulty and workload [ 27 , 28 ]. Published studies have shown that larger pupil sizes change from baseline implies greater task difficulty and mental workload [ 24 , 26 , 29 – 31 ]. Therefore, the measurement of pupil diameter can be used as a standardized evaluation method for assessing the ergonomic of user-interface of ventilators.…”