Telementoring in robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery. A critical assessment of the learning curve using GEARS score

Abstract

At Bodø Regional Hospital, an educational program for robotic ventral mesh rectopexy (RVMR) was created. Prior to conducting the project, an application to the Norwegian committee of ethics was approved. Each of the patients in the study gave their formal consent after receiving a standardized form containing information about the procedure. An experienced robotic surgeon with no prior experience with RVMR conducted twenty procedures. The RVRM procedures were telementored by an experienced robotic surgeon affiliated at Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark. The learning curve was examined by the author of this thesis, by assessing video recordings of the procedure and scoring each of the procedure with the Global Evaluative Assessment of Robotic Skills (GEARS) score. The video assessment was performed blindly, i.e., without knowing the temporal number of the procedure. The results were analyzed using the statistics tool SPSS.

The study revealed that throughout his 20 first robot-assisted rectopexies, the technical proficiency displayed by the surgeon increased across all parameters of the GEARs score and the total GEARs score.