Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41493532›Full record

ArticleInternational journal of computer assisted radiology and surgery2026

Benchmarking variability in semantic segmentation in minimally invasive abdominal surgery.

L T Castro, C Barata, P Martins, F Afonso, M Pascoal, C Santiago, L Mennillo, P Mira, D Stoyanov, M Chand and 2 more

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Article in International journal of computer assisted radiology and surgery, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

12 authors.

L T CastroGeneral Surgery Department, Hospital Prof. Dr. Fernando Fonseca, Lisbon, Portugal. laura.castro@ulsasi.min-saude.pt.ORCID http://orcid.org/0009-0000-4427-2073
C BarataInstituto de Sistemas E Robótica, LARSyS, Instituto Superior T´Ecnico, Lisbon, Portugal.
P MartinsGeneral Surgery Department, Hospital Prof. Dr. Fernando Fonseca, Lisbon, Portugal.
F AfonsoGeneral Surgery Department, Hospital Prof. Dr. Fernando Fonseca, Lisbon, Portugal.
M PascoalGeneral Surgery Department, Hospital Prof. Dr. Fernando Fonseca, Lisbon, Portugal.
C SantiagoInstituto de Sistemas E Robótica, LARSyS, Instituto Superior T´Ecnico, Lisbon, Portugal.
L MennilloComputer Science Department, University College London, London, UK.
P MiraGeneral Surgery Department, Hospital Prof. Dr. Fernando Fonseca, Lisbon, Portugal.
D StoyanovComputer Science Department, University College London, London, UK.
M ChandDivision of Surgery and Interventional Sciences, University College London, London, UK.
S BanoComputer Science Department, University College London, London, UK.
A S SoaresLisbon School of Medicine, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal. antoniosoares@medicina.ulisboa.pt.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeAnatomical identification during abdominal surgery is subjective given unclear boundaries of anatomical structures. Semantic segmentation of these structures relies on an accurate identification of the boundaries which carries an unknown uncertainty. Given its inherent subjectivity, it is important to assess annotation adequacy. This study aims to evaluate variability in anatomical structure identification and segmentation using MedSAM by surgical residents.

methodsImages from the Dresden Surgical Anatomy Dataset and the Endoscapes2023 Dataset were semantically annotated by a group of surgery residents using MedSAM in the following classes: abdominal wall, colon, liver, small bowel, spleen, stomach and gallbladder. Each class had 3 to 4 sets of annotations. Inter-annotator variability was assessed through DSC, ICC, BIoU and using the Simultaneous Truth and Performance Level Estimation algorithm to obtain a consensus mask and by calculating Fleiss' kappa agreement between all annotations and reference.

resultsThe study showed strong inter-annotator agreement among surgical residents, with DSC values of 0.84-0.95 and Fleiss' kappa between 0.85 and 0.91. Surface area reliability was good to excellent (ICC = 0.62-0.91), while boundary delineation showed lower reproducibility (BIoU = 0.092-0.157). STAPLE consensus masks confirmed consistent overall shape annotations despite variability in boundary precision.

conclusionThe study demonstrated low variability in the semantic segmentation of intraperitoneal organs in minimally invasive abdominal surgery, performed by surgical residents using MedSAM. While DSC and Fleiss' kappa values confirm strong inter-annotator agreement, the relatively low BIoU values point to challenges in boundary precision, especially for anatomically complex or variable structures. These results establish a benchmark for expanding annotation efforts to larger datasets and more detailed anatomical features.

Indexed as

AbdomenBenchmarkingMinimally Invasive Surgical ProceduresAlgorithmsHumansInternship and ResidencyReproducibility of ResultsSemanticsAbdominal anatomyAgreementSemantic segmentationSurgery

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.