Biomedical subjects

M P Schijven

Publications and source records attributed to M P Schijven.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Determination of face validity for the Simbionix LAP mentor virtual reality training module.

This study determines the expert and referent face validity of LAP Mentor, the first procedural virtual-reality (VR) trainer. After a hands-on introduction to the simulator a questionnaire was administered to 49 participants (21 expert laparoscopists and 28 novices). There was a consensus on LAP Mentor being a valid training model for basic skills training and the procedural training of laparoscopic cholecystectomies. As 88% of respondents saw training on this simulator as effective and 96% experienced this training as fun it will likely be accepted in the surgical curriculum by both experts and trainees. Further validation of the system is required to determine whether its performance concurs with these favourable expectations.

Computer Simulation↗

PubMed2005

Consensus guidelines for validation of virtual reality surgical simulators.

The Work Group for Evaluation and Implementation of Simulators and Skills Training Programmes is a newly formed sub-group of the European Association of Endoscopic Surgeons (EAES). This work group undertook a review of validation evidence for surgical simulators and the resulting consensus is presented in this article. Using clinical guidelines criteria, the evidence for validation for six different simulators was rated and subsequently translated to a level of recommendation for each system. The simulators could be divided into two basic types; systems for laparoscopic general surgery and flexible gastrointestinal endoscopy. Selection of simulators for inclusion in this consensus was based on their availability and relatively widespread usage as of July 2004. Whilst level 2 recommendations were achieved for a few systems, it was clear that there was an overall lack of published validation studies with rigorous experimental methodology. Since the consensus meeting, there have been a number of new articles, system upgrades and new devices available. The work group intends to update these consensus guidelines on a regular basis, with the resulting article available on the EAES website (http://www.eaes-eur.org ).

Computer Simulation↗

PubMed2005

The Eindhoven laparoscopic cholecystectomy training course--improving operating room performance using virtual reality training: results from the first E.A.E.S. accredited virtual reality trainings curriculum.

BACKGROUND: This study was undertaken to investigate operating room performance of surgical residents, after participating in the Eindhoven virtual reality laparoscopic cholecystectomy training course. This course is the first formal surgical resident trainings course, using a variety of complementary virtual reality (VR) skills training simulation in order to prepare surgical residents for their first laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The course was granted EAES certification. METHODS: The four-day course is based on multimedia and multimodality approach. A variety of increasingly difficult simulation training sessions, next to intimate focus-group "knowledge sessions" are included. Both basic and procedural VR simulation is featured, using MIST-VR and the Xitacts' LapChol simulation software. The operating room performance of twelve surgical residents who participated in the course and twelve case-control counterparts were compared. The case-control group was matched for clinical number laparoscopic cholecystectomy performance (maximum of 4 procedures). Two observers analyzed a randomly mixed videotape, featuring the part of the "clip-and-cut" procedure of the laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and were blinded for participants' group status. Structured questionnaires including multiple observation scales were used to assess performance. RESULTS: Residents of both the experimental and control group did not differ in demographic parameters, except for number of laparoscopic cholecystectomies in favor of the control group (p-value 0.008). Both observers judge the experimental group to perform significantly better (p-value 0.004 and 0.013). Experimental group residents valued their course highly in terms of their laparoscopic surgical skills improvement and the use of VR simulators in the surgical curriculum. CONCLUSIONS: The Eindhoven Virtual Reality laparoscopic cholecystectomy training course improves surgical skill in the operating room above the level of residents trained by a variety of other training methods.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Minimal-access surgery training in the Netherlands: a survey among residents-in-training for general surgery.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to assess the state of surgical training and its possible shortcomings in minimal-access surgery (MAS) among Dutch surgical residents. METHODS: A pretested questionnaire was distributed to all residents-in-training for general surgery in The Netherlands. RESULTS: The questionnaire was sent to 407 surgical residents. The response rate was 65%. Overall, 87.7% of all the responders were highly interested in the autonomous performance of laparoscopic surgery. Residents interested in gastrointestinal (GI) or oncologic surgery (n = 137) are significantly more interested than residents interested in non-GI/oncologic surgery. All the residents (100%) thought it was important to be able to perform the three basic MAS procedures (diagnostic laparoscopy, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and laparoscopic appendectomy) autonomously at the end of their surgical training. Other MAS procedures were considered to be advanced procedures. Gastrointestinal/oncologic residents were most interested in performing advanced MAS procedures, although only 17.8% expected to be adequately prepared at the end of their surgical training. Most residents had the opportunity to attend MAS skills education. Irrespective of the format or training method, only 26.9% of residents stated their MAS skills training was objectively evaluated. The residents thought every surgical hospital department in the Netherlands should have a surgeon specialized in laparoscopic surgery (86.9%). CONCLUSIONS: The current study showed that Dutch residents believe it is very important to perform basic MAS autonomously. Of the GI/oncologic-interested residents, the majority want to be able to perform advanced MAS, but expect to be unable to do so at the end of their training. They attribute this discrepancy to "not having enough chance to be the first operator" and to "lack of volume of procedures in the hospital." Specific and properly implemented, monitored, and evaluated MAS skills training programs in skills laboratory settings could offer a promising environment for overcoming this discrepancy.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

The learning curve on the Xitact LS 500 laparoscopy simulator: profiles of performance.

BACKGROUND: This study assesses the acquisition of skill and the learning curve associated with the performance of the clip-and-cut task on the Xitact LS 500 virtual reality (VR) simulator in laparoscopic cholecystectomy. METHODS: A group of 33 residents and interns with no previous laparoscopic experience participated in the study. All participants received a 1-h familiarization tour on the simulator. Thirty participants completed a full course of 30 simulation runs over 3 days (10 runs per day). The outcome parameters were a previously validated sum-score and time to complete performance. RESULTS: Group demographics were similar. Of the participants who completed the full study, 16.7% appeared to have such a high level of innate psychomotor abilities that they were considered proficient in the task immediately after the initial familiarization tour. Most participants (63.3%) had a moderate level of innate abilities, and their performance improved through repetitive VR training. In our study, 20% of the participants had such a low level of innate abilities that they were unable to achieve an acceptable performance in our minimal-access surgery (MAS) simulation. CONCLUSIONS: Learning curves cannot be assessed by examining the repetitive training of only one person. There seem to be four different performance profiles, reflecting the fact that some people are more adept than others to be trained by MAS procedural VR simulation. For participants receptive to training--63.3% in this study--proficiency in the task occurs after approximately 25 simulative runs.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Influence of maternal position during epidural labor analgesia.

The influence of maternal position on the spread of local anesthetics in low concentration has not been well examined during epidural analgesia for labor. This study was designed to investigate the differences in sensory block, pain relief and incidence of supine hypotensive syndrome between parturients in the left lateral position and in a modified supine position. Sixty-seven parturients were randomly assigned to lie either in the left lateral position (n = 34) or in a modified supine position (n = 33), and received 0.125% bupivacaine 10 mL with epinephrine 1:800000 and sufentanil 7.5 microg. At 20 min parturients in the modified supine position turned to the left lateral position and a second investigator, unaware of the initial position, measured the extent of the sensory block at 20 and 30 min and just before a second epidural injection was requested. More dermatomes were blocked on the dependent side when the dose was injected in the left lateral position (at 20 and 30 min: P < 0.05; before the second epidural injection: P < 0.0005). In the modified supine position the incidence of bilaterally blocked dermatomes T10-L1 was greater at 20 and 30 min (P < 0.05) and the pain on a visual analogue scale was better at 30 min (P < 0.05). Three parturients in the modified supine position had signs and symptoms of supine hypotensive syndrome. We conclude that injecting in the modified supine position results in a more equal spread of local anesthetic and better pain relief.

Clinical Trial↗

PubMed2003

Comparison of morbidity between axillary lymph node dissection and sentinel node biopsy.

AIMS: The use of axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in women with breast cancer is associated with considerable morbidity. Sentinel node biopsy (SNB) removes the lymph node in the axillary basin indicative for receiving first lymphatic drainage from the breast. This study compares the nature and severity of physical morbidity among breast cancer patients who underwent primary surgery for breast cancer combined with either ALND or SNB. Also, it assesses influence of subsequent radiotherapy on morbidity. METHOD: Two hundred and thirteen ALND patients were compared with 180 SNB patients retrospectively. Morbidity was measured using a disease-specific quality-of-life questionnaire. RESULTS: Patients' demographic characteristics were alike. The axillary procedure is the strongest and most consistent factor in explaining differences in a variety of self-reported complaints. Patients having had SNB have a 3.2-fold lower risk of experiencing pain, a 5-fold lower risk of lymph oedema, a 7.7-fold lower risk of numbness, a 3.7-fold lower risk of tingling sensations, a 7.1-fold lower risk of loss of strength in arm/hand, a 3.6-fold lower risk of loss of active motion range of the arm and a 2.9-fold lower risk of impaired use of the arm. Axillary radiation therapy adds to complaints next to the axillary surgical procedure by increasing the risk of lymph oedema 2.4-fold and enhancing the risk of impaired use of the arm by 2.6-fold. Axillary radiation therapy does not explain lymph oedema by itself. CONCLUSION: SNB is associated with less morbidity compared to ALND in patients with primary breast cancer.

Aged↗

PubMed2002

The Advanced Dundee Endoscopic Psychomotor Tester (ADEPT) objectifying subjective psychomotor test performance.

BACKGROUND: This study was undertaken to establish the value of the Advanced Dundee Psychomotor Tester (ADEPT) as an objective real-time scoring system, correcting for subjective assessor opinion on endoscopic task performance. The main research questions were as follows: Are surgeons good estimators of their own performance on ADEPT? Do surgeons perceive ADEPT to be a valid instrument for measuring laparoscopic skills? Does performance on ADEPT reflect innate psychomotor ability? METHODS: Each of 45 surgeons completed two runs on ADEPT. The runs comprised five standardized tasks. A posttest visual analog scaled (VAS) questionnaire measuring attitude toward skills testing in general, validation, and performance on ADEPT was used. Subjective responses were compared with objective scores generated through performance on ADEPT. RESULTS: Surgeons emphasize the importance of using a variety of training methods for surgical residents during their residency, including laparoscopic virtual reality simulators. Monitoring of residents' endoscopic progress seemed to be a key issue. Surgeons themselves underestimate their individual performance on ADEPT (mean subjective score of 6.1 vs mean objective score of 6.6). Self-reported performance on ADEPT is unreliable because confidence intervals between the VAS score and the ADEPT score overlap. Surgeons disagree on the validity of ADEPT. The mean score for validity was 5.8, ranging from 0 to 10 with almost equal distribution over the scale. Innate ability is established as surgeons' scores express high concordance between test run and true run, with 72.7% of the participants' true run score within one distance from the test run. CONCLUSIONS: Surgeons cannot correctly predict their standardized individual test result on ADEPT. Performance on ADEPT reflects innate psychomotor ability along with improvement over runs. Surgeons are ambivalent in assessing the validity of ADEPT, irrespective of personal performance.

Clinical Competence↗

PubMed2001

Urologic and sexual morbidity following multimodality treatment for locally advanced primary and locally recurrent rectal cancer.

AIMS: In the treatment of patients with locally advanced primary or locally recurrent rectal cancer much attention is given to the oncological aspects. In long-term survivors, urogenital morbidity can have a large effect on the quality of life. This study evaluates the functional outcome after multimodality treatment in these patient groups. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between 1994 and August 1999, 55 patients with locally advanced primary and 66 patients with locally recurrent rectal cancer were treated with multimodality treatment: i.e. high-dose preoperative external beam radiation therapy, followed by extended surgery and intraoperative radiotherapy. The medical records of the 121 patients were reviewed. To assess long-term urogenital morbidity, all patients still alive, with a minimum follow-up of 4 months, were asked to fill out a questionnaire about their voiding and sexual function. Seventy-six of the 79 currently living patients (96%) returned the questionnaire (median FU 14 months, range 4-60). RESULTS: The questionnaire revealed identifiable voiding dysfunction as a new problem in 31% of the male and 58% of the female patients. In 42% of patients after locally advanced primary and 48% after locally recurrent rectal cancer treatment bladder dysfunction occurred. The preoperative ability to have an orgasm had disappeared in 50% of the male and 50% of the female patients, and in 45% of patients after locally advanced primary and in 57% after locally recurrent rectal cancer treatment. CONCLUSION: Multimodality treatment for locally advanced primary and recurrent rectal cancer results in acceptable urogenital dysfunction if weighed by the risk of uncontrolled tumour progression. Long-term voiding and sexual function is decreased in half of the patients. Preoperative counselling of these patients on treatment-related urogenital morbidity is important.

Adult↗