Gender differences in the acquisition of suturing skills with the da Vinci surgical system

Background: The percentage of female medical students has been significant elevating worldwide. The demographic shift is expected to influence the proportion of male versus female surgeons soon. The objective of this study was to evaluate the gender differences in the acquisition of robotic suturing...

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Main Authors: Hsin-Yi Chiu, Yi-No Kang, Wei-Lin Wang, Yiu-Shun Tong, Sheng-Wei Chang, Tsorng-Harn Fong, Po-Li Wei
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2020-01-01
Series:Journal of the Formosan Medical Association
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929664618309288
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author Hsin-Yi Chiu
Yi-No Kang
Wei-Lin Wang
Yiu-Shun Tong
Sheng-Wei Chang
Tsorng-Harn Fong
Po-Li Wei
author_facet Hsin-Yi Chiu
Yi-No Kang
Wei-Lin Wang
Yiu-Shun Tong
Sheng-Wei Chang
Tsorng-Harn Fong
Po-Li Wei
author_sort Hsin-Yi Chiu
collection DOAJ
description Background: The percentage of female medical students has been significant elevating worldwide. The demographic shift is expected to influence the proportion of male versus female surgeons soon. The objective of this study was to evaluate the gender differences in the acquisition of robotic suturing skills. Methods: We compared the robotic suturing performance between 39 male and 19 female medical students. We separated the training into two parts: phase I, involving virtual reality (VR) robotic simulation, and phase II, involving robotic dry-laboratory simulation training. Participants first conducted step-by-step exercises on the VR robotic simulator and then the robotic skin-suturing pad using the da Vinci robot. Results: The metric analysis of the VR task “suture sponge” showed that female students required less time (difference: −170.7 seconds, 95% CI: −247.4 to −94.0) and had fewer errors (error difference: −50, 95% CI: −74.2 to −25.8) to complete the suture sponge exercise compared to male students. Moreover, female students completed more stitches than male students (differences in mean stitch achieved: .35; 95% CI: .06 to .65). However, there was no difference in the quality scores of stitches by gender (p = 0.85). Conclusion: Female medical students performed better in the VR task of suture spongy and achieved more stitches than male students with the da Vinci system despite no difference in robotic suture quality by gender. Because this is the first study comparing gender performance on a robotic platform, further studies are required to investigate if different training approaches will affect the performance by gender. Keywords: Robotic surgery, Simulation, Gender difference, Virtual reality, Medical education
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spelling doaj.art-c071399337084720924ac2d2fc355c2a2022-12-22T02:46:44ZengElsevierJournal of the Formosan Medical Association0929-66462020-01-011191462470Gender differences in the acquisition of suturing skills with the da Vinci surgical systemHsin-Yi Chiu0Yi-No Kang1Wei-Lin Wang2Yiu-Shun Tong3Sheng-Wei Chang4Tsorng-Harn Fong5Po-Li Wei6Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Taipei Medical University Hospital, No.252, Wu Hsing Street, Taipei City, 11031, Taiwan; Department of Medical Education, Taipei Medical University Hospital, No.252, Wu Hsing Street, Taipei City 11031, Taiwan; Department of Education and Humanities in Medicine, School of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Animal Science and Technology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, TaiwanDepartment of Medical Education, Taipei Medical University Hospital, No.252, Wu Hsing Street, Taipei City 11031, Taiwan; Department of Education and Humanities in Medicine, School of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, TaiwanDivision of Acute Care Surgery and Traumatology, Department of Surgery, Taipei Medical University Hospital, No.252, Wu Hsing Street, Taipei City, 11031, TaiwanDivision of Acute Care Surgery and Traumatology, Department of Surgery, Taipei Medical University Hospital, No.252, Wu Hsing Street, Taipei City, 11031, TaiwanDivision of Acute Care Surgery and Traumatology, Department of Surgery, Taipei Medical University Hospital, No.252, Wu Hsing Street, Taipei City, 11031, TaiwanDepartment of Anatomy and Cell Biology, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Corresponding author. Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, No. 250, Wu-Hsing Street, Taipei, 110, Taiwan. Fax: +886 2 23780643.Division of Colorectal Surgery, Department of Surgery, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Cancer Research Center and Translational Laboratory, Department of Medical Research, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Cancer Biology and Drug Discovery, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Corresponding author. Division of Colorectal Surgery, Department of Surgery, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei Medical University, No.252, Wu Hsing Street, Taipei City, 110, Taiwan. Fax: +886 2 23011099.Background: The percentage of female medical students has been significant elevating worldwide. The demographic shift is expected to influence the proportion of male versus female surgeons soon. The objective of this study was to evaluate the gender differences in the acquisition of robotic suturing skills. Methods: We compared the robotic suturing performance between 39 male and 19 female medical students. We separated the training into two parts: phase I, involving virtual reality (VR) robotic simulation, and phase II, involving robotic dry-laboratory simulation training. Participants first conducted step-by-step exercises on the VR robotic simulator and then the robotic skin-suturing pad using the da Vinci robot. Results: The metric analysis of the VR task “suture sponge” showed that female students required less time (difference: −170.7 seconds, 95% CI: −247.4 to −94.0) and had fewer errors (error difference: −50, 95% CI: −74.2 to −25.8) to complete the suture sponge exercise compared to male students. Moreover, female students completed more stitches than male students (differences in mean stitch achieved: .35; 95% CI: .06 to .65). However, there was no difference in the quality scores of stitches by gender (p = 0.85). Conclusion: Female medical students performed better in the VR task of suture spongy and achieved more stitches than male students with the da Vinci system despite no difference in robotic suture quality by gender. Because this is the first study comparing gender performance on a robotic platform, further studies are required to investigate if different training approaches will affect the performance by gender. Keywords: Robotic surgery, Simulation, Gender difference, Virtual reality, Medical educationhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929664618309288
spellingShingle Hsin-Yi Chiu
Yi-No Kang
Wei-Lin Wang
Yiu-Shun Tong
Sheng-Wei Chang
Tsorng-Harn Fong
Po-Li Wei
Gender differences in the acquisition of suturing skills with the da Vinci surgical system
Journal of the Formosan Medical Association
title Gender differences in the acquisition of suturing skills with the da Vinci surgical system
title_full Gender differences in the acquisition of suturing skills with the da Vinci surgical system
title_fullStr Gender differences in the acquisition of suturing skills with the da Vinci surgical system
title_full_unstemmed Gender differences in the acquisition of suturing skills with the da Vinci surgical system
title_short Gender differences in the acquisition of suturing skills with the da Vinci surgical system
title_sort gender differences in the acquisition of suturing skills with the da vinci surgical system
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929664618309288
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