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Abstract Title

The first 10 minutes of a surgical procedure correlate well to total score

Authors

Charlotte Carlsen
Karen Lindorff-Larsen
Lars Lund
Peter Funch-Jensen
Lars Konge

Theme

10AA Surgery

INSTITUTION

Aarhus University - Centre of Medical Education - Aarhus - Denmark
Aalborg University Hospital - NordSim - Aalborg - Denmark
Odense University Hospital - Urology - Odense - Denmark

Background

Video-recording makes un-biased assessment of complete procedures feasible but the approach is very time consuming. Procedure time in surgery is a proxy measure of operative skills. We investigated the correlations between the time to complete the first part-tasks of a surgical procedure and the total objective score of the whole procedure.

Summary of Work

We recorded 86 videos of Lichtenstein hernia performed by first year surgical trainees in Denmark. Three raters using an objective assessment tool (8-40 points) with published evidence of validity (1) blindly scored all videos. In all of the recordings time to complete important first part: freeing of the spermatic cord was measured.

Take-home Messages

The first part task of a surgical procedure correlates to total objective score.

References

1) Carlsen CG, Lindorff-Larsen K, Funch-Jensen P, Lund L, Charles P, Konge L. Reliable and valid assessment of Lichtenstein hernia repair skills. Hernia 2014;18(4):543-8

Acknowledgement

Thanks to Anette Engsig for help with the time measuring.

Conclusion

This study showed that time to complete the first important task in a surgical procedure correlated well to objective assessment score for the complete procedure. Watching only the first 10 minutes may be enough for assessment.

Summary of Results

Total procedure time correlated to total objective score by -0.708 (p<0.001) (Pearson). Time from beginning to freeing spermatic cord correlated -0.403 (p<0.001) to total objective score. Mean time to freeing the spermatic cord was 9.43 (SD 4.44) min.