title: Mirror glasses for minimally invasive surgery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The operator performing minimally invasive surgery is prevented from seeing the whole field with both eyes by the restricted small thoracotomy incision. To overcome this problem, we developed mirror glasses.
  
  
  METHODS
  Use of these glasses was evaluated in terms of the time required for threading of sutures with endoscopic forceps. Three surgeon ligated thread a suture five times with and without use of the glasses in the box, and the mean time was calculated for each surgeon.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The time required for ligation (mean +/- SD) was 24.2 +/- 2.9 s with mirror glasses and 27.0 +/- 2.5 s without the glasses (p = 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The mirror glasses may be found useful for fine manipulation for minimally invasive surgery.
authors.affiliation: Center for Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA. nori-i@mnx.jp
authors.forename: Norihiko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ishikawa
authors.forename: You Su
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: L Wiley
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Nifong
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oda
authors.forename: Yasuhiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ohta
authors.forename: Go
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: W Randolph
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Chitwood
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D004869:Equipment Safety; D005139:Eyeglasses; D006801:Humans; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D009873:Operating Rooms; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013908:Thoracotomy / Q000379:methods*; D014785:Vision, Ocular