Image-based laparoscopic camera steering versus conventional steering: a comparison study

Abstract

In the last 2 decades, multiple robotic camera holders have been developed to improve camera steering during laparoscopic surgery. A new image-based steering method has been developed for more intuitive camera control. In this article, the efficiency and user experience of image-based steering were compared to conventional steering methods. Four participants (two senior surgical registrars, one junior surgical registrar and a technical medicine student) were enrolled in this study. All participants performed multiple camera steering exercises with three different steering modalities in randomized order: image-based, joystick and manual camera steering. Steering of the laparoscope was evaluated by execution time and with the SMEQ and NASA-TLX questionnaires to analyze user experience. A total of 267 camera steering exercises were performed. The analyzed data showed a significantly shorter execution time for manual camera steering compared to image-based robotic steering (p = 0.001) and joystick robotic steering (p = 0.001). The participants reported the lowest user experience with joystick camera steering. The results of the questionnaires showed no significant difference in all subscales of user experience for image-based and manual camera steering. Manual camera steering resulted in significantly higher perceived physiological workload scores (M = 30.0, IQR = 27.5) compared to image-based (M = 10, IQR = 5.0) and joystick camera steering (M = 15.0, IQR = 10.0). Manual control of the laparoscope remains the fastest steering method at the expense of a high physical workload. Using image-based camera steering is a viable alternative to the current joystick control of robotic camera holders, as it improves speed and user experience. The study results suggest that optimisation of robotic camera steering with algorithms based on image analysis is a promising technology.

Robotic Endoscope Control Via Autonomous Instrument Tracking

“…As opposed to all these different markers, the endoscope is necessary to perform the surgery, and the surgeon needs to be able to see the instruments to carry out the intervention, so using the endoscope and its video frames without any instrument modifications to help track the tools is a solution that stems naturally from the existing surgical workflow. This has also been the path followed in the devise of AutoLap ™ (Medical Surgery Technologies, Yokneam, Israel) ( Wijsman et al, 2018 , 2022 ), which is, to the best of our knowledge, the only robotic laparoscopic camera holder that claims to have incorporated image-based laparoscopic camera steering within its features. However, no technical details are provided in these publications on how it is achieved.…”