Abstract
Laparoscopic surgery greatly benefits the patient: it reduces recovery time, has a lower cost than other procedures, and has a greater cosmetic benefit. With every benefit, there is usually a cost. Laparoscopic surgery comes at the cost of the surgeons. Surgeons must cope with disadvantages caused from unergonomic handles. The current tools create awkward postures, pressure points and nerve legions. The purpose of the current study was to determine the best input device for a hot, powered, laparoscopic surgery tool. The current study tested four different input devices on a previously designed ergonomic laparoscopic tool handle using a target acquisition task. The input devices tested were the: Mouse Button Module, TouchPad, MiniJoystick Module, and MicroJoystick. Users' provided feedback via a questionnaire. Results show that the TouchPad and MicroJoystick are the best input devices for a powered tool with the MicroJoystick leading the pack.
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