Abstract
While the ophthalmic surgeon’s forearm during retinal surgeries is supported using a standard symmetric wrist rest when operating on the patients’ same side as the dominant hand (SSD), the surgeon’s hand is typically placed on the forehead when operating on the contralateral side of the dominant hand (CSD). It was hypothesized that more tremor occurs during CSD than SSD surgeries. Fifty-one surgical microscope videos recorded from three surgeons were analyzed using marker-less motion tracking with tremor acceleration, frequency, and magnitude measured. After 34 surgeries using a symmetric wrist support, an experimental asymmetric wrist rest was used. There was 0.12 mm/s2 (24%) greater (p=.04) average tremor acceleration magnitude for CSD surgeries (0.62 mm/s2, SD=0.08) than SSD surgeries (0.50 mm/s2, SD=0.10) for the symmetric wrist rest, while no significant (p>.05) differences were observed for the asymmetric wrist rest. This suggests that supporting the forearms rather than the hands, reduces surgeon hand tremor.
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