Objective assessment for open surgical suturing training by finger tracking can discriminate novices from experts

Figures & data

Figure 1. a and b Research setup with a Lenovo P10 tablet in a stand and a simulator by PediatrickBoxx.

Figure 2. a) Task 1: Knot tying by hand. b) Task 2: Transcutaneous suture. c) Task 3: ‘Donati’ suture. d) Task 4: Intracutaneous suture.

Figure 3. a and b Bar graph of primary outcome parameters time and distance.

Table 1. Primary outcome parameters of novices and experts. Mann Whitney U tests. P-value<0.05 is assumed as a statistically significant difference.

Primary outcome parameters		Task 1 (Median, IQR)	Task 2 (Median, IQR)	Task 3 (Median, IQR)	Task 4 (Median, IQR)
Time (s)	Novices	41.0 (50.5)	108.0 (49.0)	173.0 (72.0)	294.0 (116.0)
	Experts	9.0 (6.0)	27.0 (11.0)	43.0 (8.0)	110.0 (54.0)
	P-value	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
Distance (m)	Novices	2.2 (6.3)	7.8 (8.4)	13.4 (17.2)	27.3 (27.7)
	Experts	0.8 (1.9)	1.7 (2.6)	2.8 (4.6)	12.4 (26.4)
	P-value	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	0.041

Table 2. Secondary outcome parameters of novices and experts. Mann Whitney U tests. P-value<0.05 is assumed as a statistically significant difference.

Secondary outcome parameters		Task 1 (Median, IQR)	Task 2 (Median, IQR)	Task 3 (Median, IQR)	Task 4 (Median, IQR)
Handedness (%)	Novices	60.0 (57.2)	33.1 (74.8)	73.3 (27.7)	71.8 (24.6)
	Experts	71.1 (71.4)	69.5 (38.6)	44.5 (56.0)	57.6 (36.9)
	P-value	0.606	0.046	0.001	0.063
Speed (mm/s)	Novices	16.6 (29.8)	20.1 (23.2)	22.3 (23.4)	26.7 (25.6)
	Experts	18.7 (51.9)	23.5 (38.7)	21.9 (35.0)	34.6 (51.9)
	P-value	0.185	0.092	0.305	0.051
Acceleration (mm/s2)	Novices	3.4 (2.0)	3.2 (1.2)	3.7 (1.5)	3.5 (1.5)
	Experts	2.5 (3.4)	4.3 (2.7)	3.1 (1.4)	2.9 (1.2)
	P-value	0.487	0.288	0.099	0.062
Smoothness (mm/s3)	Novices	0.7 (0.9)	0.3 (0.2)	0.2 (0.1)	0.1 (0.1)
	Experts	3.7 (6.1)	1.3 (1.0)	0.7 (0.5)	0.3 (0.1)
	P-value	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
Distance between (cm)	Novices	2.8 (2.8)	3.4 (1.4)	3.4 (1.4)	3.6 (1.5)
	Experts	5.8 (7.1)	3.6 (4.5)	3.8 (3.5)	5.4 (4.8)
	P-value	0.111	0.806	0.710	0.015