Hand smoothness in laparoscopic surgery correlates to psychomotor skills in virtual reality

The main purpose of this study is to find possible relationships between the smoothness of hand function during laparoscopic ventral hernia (LVH) repair and psychomotor skills in a defined virtual reality (VR) environment. Thirty four surgical residents N = 34 performed two scenarios. First, participants were asked to perform a simulated LVH repair during which their hand movement was tracked using electromagnetic sensors. Subsequently, the smoothness of hand function was calculated for each participant's dominant and non-dominate hand. Then participants performed two modules in a defined VR environment, which assessed their force matching and target tracking capabilities. More smooth hand function during the LVH repair correlated positively with higher performance in VR modules. Also, translational smoothness of dominant hand is found as the most informative smoothness metric in the LVH repair scenario. Therefore, defined force matching and target tracking assessments in VR can potentially be used as an indirect assessment of fine motor skills in the LVH repair.