Department of Mechanical Engineering, Energy an Materials, University of Extremadura, C/ Sta. Teresa de Jornet 38, 06800, Mérida, Spain.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Energy an Materials, University of Extremadura, Avda. de Elvas s/n, 06006, Badajoz, Spain.
Appl Ergon. 2020 Oct;88:103161. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2020.103161. Epub 2020 May 22.
Laparoscopic surgery techniques are customarily used in non-invasive procedures. That said traditional surgical instruments and devices used by surgeons suffer from certain ergonomic deficiencies that may lead to physical complaints in upper limbs and back and general discomfort that may, in turn, affect the surgeon's skills during surgery. A novel design of the laparoscopic gripper handle is presented and compared with one of the most used instruments in this field in an attempt to overcome this problem. The assessment of the ergonomic feature of the novel design was performed by using time-frequency analysis of the surface electromyography (sEMG) signal during dynamic activities. Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) was used to decompose the sEMG signal and extract the median frequency of each muscle to assess muscle fatigue. The results reveal that using the proposed ergonomic grip reduces the mean values of the muscle activity during each of the proposed tasks. The novel design also improves the ease of use in laparoscopic surgery as it minimises high-pressure contact areas, reduces large amplitude movements and promotes a neutral position of the hand, wrist and forearm. Furthermore, the SSA method for time-frequency analysis provides a powerful tool to analyse a prescribed activity in ergonomic terms. The proposed methodology to assess muscle activity during surgery activities may be useful in the selection of surgical instruments when programming extended procedures, as it provides an additional selection criterion based on the surgeon's biomechanics and the proposed activity.
腹腔镜手术技术通常用于非侵入性手术。也就是说，外科医生使用的传统手术器械和设备存在一定的人体工程学缺陷，这可能导致上肢和背部出现身体不适，并普遍感到不适，进而影响外科医生在手术过程中的技能。本文提出了一种新型腹腔镜夹具手柄的设计，并与该领域最常用的器械之一进行了比较，试图克服这一问题。通过对动态活动中表面肌电图（sEMG）信号进行时频分析，评估了新型设计的人体工程学特征。奇异谱分析（SSA）用于分解 sEMG 信号并提取每个肌肉的中值频率，以评估肌肉疲劳。结果表明，使用提出的符合人体工程学的夹具可以降低每个任务的肌肉活动的平均值。新型设计还通过最小化高压接触区域、减少大幅度运动以及促进手、手腕和前臂的中立位置，改善了腹腔镜手术的易用性。此外，SSA 方法用于时频分析为以人体工程学的角度分析规定的活动提供了一个强大的工具。在为延长的手术过程编程时，用于评估手术活动中肌肉活动的这种方法可以用于选择手术器械，因为它提供了基于外科医生的生物力学和提出的活动的额外选择标准。
