Wearable Device Could Improve ‘Tactile’ Sensitivity during Robotic Surgery

It's common knowledge among surgeons and medical practitioners that robotic surgery provides advantages like minor incisions, reduced hospital stay duration, and less post-surgical discomfort. However, the learning path for mastering surgical robots can be quite challenging. Now, a newly developed, wearable device aims to improve this curve.

Typically, during traditional open surgery, surgeons have tactile feedback, feeling how their instruments interact with body tissue. They can sense the firmness of the tissue or the tension they apply, for example when tightening a suture, through their hands and the instruments they use. Yet, with robotic surgery, where the surgeon operates a machine at a distance from the patient, this haptic feedback is absent in the most commonly used robotic platforms. To compensate for this, surgeons undertaking robotic operations need to develop haptic visual acuity, meaning they learn how to gauge tension levels and navigate the robotic arms' instruments for best outcomes by observing the surgical field on a screen.

Image: Surgeons seek to improve ‘tactile’ sensitivity during robotic surgery (Photo courtesy of Johns Hopkins)

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine (Baltimore, MD, USA) have designed a wrist-worn sensor device that vibrates proportionately to the pressure exerted on the tissue during surgical training scenarios. The more force applied, the stronger the resulting vibration. Although devices like this might initially slow the learning process as users adapt to the feedback, the researchers anticipate that it will ultimately enhance the overall training process. The next stage of the study will explore how effectively using this device can contribute to improved surgical performance and patient safety. The research team is also looking to integrate an automated coaching system that provides expert feedback via on-screen text, allowing beginner surgeons to train in an environment that closely resembles a real operating room.

“We want to determine if use of this technology helps accelerate the learning process and allows surgeons to correlate the force applied with what they see visually while using the robot,” said Gina Adrales, director of the Division of Minimally Invasive Surgery who is leading the development of the wearable device.

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Johns Hopkins Medicine