Effect of Stereoscopic Endoscope on Surgical Task Performance

Abstract

For medical stereoscopic imaging, the usefulness of the presentation of depth information and the issues of picture quality and fatigue have been discussed. We used a laparoscope that allows switchover between two-dimension (2D) display and three-dimension (3D) display, and compared execution time and accuracy in three kinds of tasks-a pegboard, incision, and suturing-under the 2D and 3D conditions conducted for one hour in total. To avoid the effect of fatigue and order effect to the utmost, an interval of two weeks or more was placed between both experiments. A total of 12 subjects showed higher speed when using the 3D display than the 2D display in all three tasks and, simultaneously, improvement in execution time as a result of order effect. Improvement of task accuracy using 3D display was found in the pegboard task. Large individual variations in execution time were also found. We conclude that the current stereoscopic endoscopes can improve performance of surgical manipulations, but its effect varies from task to task.