Real-time estimation of surgical procedure duration

Efficiency in the Operating Room (OR) is a topic of growing interest. Planning of care is a crucial element to ensure optimal use of the ORs. Currently, OR scheduling is considered as a complex task based on predictions of surgery duration. The latter are often based on average times, but turn out to be inaccurate in practice because of...

Safe surgical signatures

In this dissertation, we analyse the safe use of medical technology, considering the training of users, technical demands of used devices and instruments, and the surgical workflow. As each of these elements will vary depending on the experience of the user, the equipment used, and variations in the environment; a unique set of parameters for...

Where are my instruments? Hazards in delivery of surgical instruments

Background Unavailability of instruments is recognised to cause delays and stress in the operating room, which can lead to additional risks for the patients. The aim was to provide an overview of the hazards in the entire delivery process of surgical instruments and to provide insight into how Information Technology (IT) could support this...

Living labs: The Smooth Operator

More and more medical technology is finding its way to the operating room, which is a great benefit for efficiency and patient safety. However, it may also cause disturbances in the workflow. Living labs and Test Beds such as a Research Operating Room can provide a real-life setting in which safe implementation/ research in the field of work...

Steerable needles for radio-frequency ablation in cirrhotic livers

Accurate needle placement in deep-seated liver tumours can be difficult. In this work, we disclose two new manually controlled steerable needles for 17G radio-frequency ablation probe placement. The needles contain stylets with embedded compliant joints for active tip articulations, and concentric tubes for (curved-path) guidance. Needle...

‘It is time to prepare the next patient’ real-time prediction of procedure duration in laparoscopic cholecystectomies

Operating Room (OR) scheduling is crucial to allow efficient use of ORs. Currently, the predicted durations of surgical procedures are unreliable and the OR schedulers have to follow the progress of the procedures in order to update the daily planning accordingly. The OR schedulers often acquire the needed information through verbal...

The art of electrosurgery: Trainees and experts

The benefits of electrosurgery have been acknowledged since the early 1920s, and nowadays more than 80% of surgical procedures involve devices that apply energy to tissues. Despite its widespread use, it is currently unknown how the operator's choices with regard to instrument selection and application technique are related to complications....

Surgical phase modelling in minimal invasive surgery

Background: Surgical Process Modelling (SPM) offers the possibility to automatically gain insight in the surgical workflow, with the potential to improve OR logistics and surgical care. Most studies have focussed on phase recognition modelling of the laparoscopic cholecystectomy, because of its standard and frequent execution. To demonstrate...

Electrosurgery: short-circuit between education and practice

Introduction: Electrosurgery is used in 80% of surgical procedures. The technique allows surgeons to skilfully dissect tissues and achieve haemostasis. Since improper use of electrosurgery can lead to serious adverse events, training is required to potentially reduce the number and severity of these events. In this study we evaluate education...