Intraocular pressure increases after complex simulated surgical procedures in residents: an experimental study.

Background: Surgeons' overload is one of the main causes of medical errors that might compromise patient safety. Due to the drawbacks of current options to monitor surgeons' load, new, sensitive, and objective indices of task (over)load need to be considered and tested. In non-health-care scenarios, intraocular pressure (IOP) has been proved to be an unbiased physiological index, sensitive to task complexity (one of the main variables related to overload), and time on task.

Quantifying the cognitive cost of laparo-endoscopic single-site surgeries: Gaze-based indices.

Background: Despite the growing interest concerning the laparo-endoscopic single-site surgery (LESS) procedure, LESS presents multiple difficulties and challenges that are likely to increase the surgeon's cognitive cost, in terms of both cognitive load and performance. Nevertheless, there is currently no objective index capable of assessing the surgeon cognitive cost while performing LESS. We assessed if gaze-based indices might offer unique and unbiased measures to quantify LESS complexity and its cognitive cost.

Gaze-based Technology as a Tool for Surgical Skills Assessment and Training in Urology.

Objective: To assess the sensitivity of gaze-based metrics in detecting cognitive demands imposed by surgical procedures. We analyzed urologists' gaze entropy and velocity while performing 2 standardized high-fidelity simulated stone procedures with different levels of complexity.

Methods: Using a wearable eye tracker device (mounted onto an eyeglass frame), we measured gaze entropy and velocity in 15 urologists, members of the Andalusian health-care system, while they performed an extraction of a stone in the bladder (low complexity) and an extraction of a stone in the lumbar ureter (high complexity).

Gaze entropy reflects surgical task load.

Background: Task (over-)load imposed on surgeons is a main contributing factor to surgical errors. Recent research has shown that gaze metrics represent a valid and objective index to asses operator task load in non-surgical scenarios. Thus, gaze metrics have the potential to improve workplace safety by providing accurate measurements of task load variations.