title: Examination of muscle effort and fatigue during virtual and actual laparoscopic surgical skills practice.
abstract: This study determined the muscle effort and fatigue of the upper extremity while performing fundamental surgical skills training tasks. Ten novices performed three tasks (precision cutting, needle passing, and peg transfer) using either a virtual simulator or a laparoscopic box-trainer. Their electromyography (EMG) activities in both proximal and distal parts of upper extremity were measured. Significantly more muscle effort were required to complete tasks with the box-trainer, whereas similar muscle fatigue levels between tasks were found in both training environments. These EMG results demonstrated how the virtual trainer could provide meaningful physiological value to the surgeon training in laparoscopic surgery.
authors: College of Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.
authors: Landon
authors: L
authors: Ehlers
authors: Irene H
authors: IH
authors: Suh
authors: Chad
authors: C
authors: LaGrange
authors: Dmitry
authors: D
authors: Oleynikov
authors: Ka-Chun
authors: KC
authors: Siu
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000193:education* / Q000379:methods*; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology*; D018763:Muscle Fatigue / Q000502:physiology*; D005082:Physical Exertion / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D016526:Workload