Review of automated performance metrics to assess surgical technical skills in robot-assisted laparoscopy.

introductionRobot-assisted laparoscopy is a safe surgical approach with several studies suggesting correlations between complication rates and the surgeon's technical skills. Surgical skills are usually assessed by questionnaires completed by an expert observer. With the advent of surgical robots, automated surgical performance metrics (APMs)-objective measures related to instrument movements-can be computed. The aim of this systematic review was thus to assess APMs use in robot-assisted laparoscopic procedures. The primary outcome was the assessment of surgical skills by APMs and the secondary outcomes were the association between APM and surgeon parameters and the prediction of clinical outcomes.

methodsA systematic review following the PRISMA guidelines was conducted. PubMed and Scopus electronic databases were screened with the query "robot-assisted surgery OR robotic surgery AND performance metrics" between January 2010 and January 2021. The quality of the studies was assessed by the medical education research study quality instrument. The study settings, metrics, and applications were analysed.

resultsThe initial search yielded 341 citations of which 16 studies were finally included. The study settings were either simulated virtual reality (VR) (4 studies) or real clinical environment (12 studies). Data to compute APMs were kinematics (motion tracking), and system and specific events data (actions from the robot console). APMs were used to differentiate expertise levels, and thus validate VR modules, predict outcomes, and integrate datasets for automatic recognition models. APMs were correlated with clinical outcomes for some studies.

conclusionsAPMs constitute an objective approach for assessing technical skills. Evidence of associations between APMs and clinical outcomes remain to be confirmed by further studies, particularly, for non-urological procedures. Concurrent validation is also required.