Grasping Sensory Evaluation Method of Flexible Materials Using Endoscopic Forceps

Abstract

In the endoscopic surgery, the forceps attached many kinds of gripping clip have been used, but it has been pointed out that there is a difference in the operability of the endoscopic forceps in the actual operation. In this study, to consider the performance of Endoscopic forceps for sensing the property of flexible materials using sensory characteristics, a sensory test was carried out by Scheffé’s methods of paired comparison and Thurstone’s methods which are used for the sensory test. The specimens were used a silicon rubber with different hardness as a substitute for material as an object of the sensory test. From the experimental results of the sensory test and an analysis of variance with the score as a sensory property, the effect of the main factor, which was explained as the difference of the specimen hardness was significant at 99% confidence level in all cases. The combined effect was not significant with the forceps, which means that the ability of forceps was limited to detect the discrimination of the magnification relations of hardness. As a result, it was made clear that the discrimination accuracy of hardness for specimen using the forceps was low compared than direct gripping for discrimination part.