Objective psychomotor laparoscopic skills evaluation using a low-cost wearable device based on accelerometry: construct and concurrent validity study.

Background: Motion analysis of surgical maneuvers provides useful quantitative information for the objective evaluation of the surgeons. However, surgical simulation laboratories for laparoscopic training do not usually integrate devices that help quantify the level of skills of the surgeons due to their limited resources and the high costs of new technologies. The purpose of this study is to present the construct and concurrent validity of a low-cost motion tracking system, based on a wireless triaxial accelerometer, employed to objectively evaluate psychomotor skills of surgeons during laparoscopic training.

A comparison between two robust techniques for segmentation of blood vessels.

Image segmentation plays an important role in image analysis. According to several authors, segmentation terminates when the observer's goal is satisfied. For this reason, a unique method that can be applied to all possible cases does not yet exist.