Surgical skill facilitation in videoscopic open surgery.

The operating room (OR) was traditionally characterized as a closed environment, in which the view of the operative field was available to the surgeon and assistant only. In laparoscopy, integration of technology into the surgical theatre has transformed surgical procedures into minimally invasive events, with viewing of the surgical field using endoscopic cameras. Similar technical advances to the open surgical environment will allow visualization and coordination of finer surgical maneuvers on standard video monitors. The objective of this study was to develop optimal protocols for performing basic open surgical maneuvers without direct viewing of the operating field, instead watching a monitor that displays the image of the surgical field captured by an endoscopic camera. The AESOP robotic arm and Alpha Virtual Port (Computer Motion, Goleta, California) were used to hold the endoscopic camera in different positions relative to the surgeon and the operative table. The surgeons conducting the study evaluated six such different setups. Based on the average time to complete the task in each of these setups and the ease of adaptation to the new working conditions, we concluded that at least one of these setups could be translated into the OR. The advantages of integrating video image enhancement over classical open surgery (OS) are that the surgical field can be magnified to perform finer maneuvers, and to share views of the surgical field with additional clinicians and trainees.