Evaluation of learning levels of laparoscopic surgical simulations by electroencephalographic signal analysis

Laparoscopic surgical procedures require more distinct and superior psychomotor skill than the open surgical methods. While quantitative determination of the skill level is difficult, the use of electroencephalography (EEG) in the measurement of new competency gaining has potential to create an unbiased criterion for determining the permanent performance of laparoscopic surgical simulation users. For this purpose, spectral and statistical evaluation of EEG data collected during laparoscopic surgical simulation training was performed in this study. In the framework of the protocol approved by the ethics committee, 10 male (dominant right hand, 22±2.43 years old) university students who had no previous experience in using laparoscopic surgical simulator participated in the experiment with written consequent. The peg transfer procedure, which is a laparoscopic surgical simulation training module, was performed on two separate dates, on a weekly basis. The process was performed for 3 times as nesting of 4 peg nests in each of the peg transfer. Spectral analysis of EEG data was performed using the NPX Lab program. The results were also statistically analyzed with SPSS program. Changes in relative temporal power at two time points were found to be significant in the anterior temporal and frontal regions and anomalous changes in the frontal parietal regions. When the changes in the bands were examined, it was found that the differences from the bifurcations were mostly in the alpha and theta bands. This study, the formation of laparoscopic surgical simulation training methods is the first and unique study in which more efficient quantitative criteria can be determined.