Short-term "in vivo" study on cellular DNA damage induced by acrylic Andresen activator in oral mucosa cells.

Objectives: To analyse through comet assay and micronucleus test the viability and DNA damage occurred in buccal mucosa epithelial cells after a short-term exposure to Andresen activator resin monomers.

Setting And Sample Population: Test group consisting of 26 subjects was treated with Andresen activator; 16 subjects who had never undergone orthodontic treatment were enrolled in the control group.

Material & Methods: Buccal mucosa samples were collected before treatment and after 7, 15, 30, 60 and 90 days.

Biomechanics-machine learning system for surgical gesture analysis and development of technologies for minimal access surgery.

Background: The uptake of minimal access surgery (MAS) has by virtue of its clinical benefits become widespread across the surgical specialties. However, despite its advantages in reducing traumatic insult to the patient, it imposes significant ergonomic restriction on the operating surgeons who require training for the safe execution. Recent progress in manipulator technologies (robotic or mechanical) have certainly reduced the level of difficulty, however it requires information for a complete gesture analysis of surgical performance.

Proficiency assessment of gesture analysis in laparoscopy by means of the surgeon's musculo-skeleton model.

Objective: This article presents the implementation of surgeon's musculo-skeletal model for gesture analysis in laparoscopy, thereby providing a complete account of the objective metrics needed to evaluate surgical performance and to improve the design of new surgical instruments including robotic instrumentation for surgical procedures.

Background: Previous published work has been based exclusively on the kinematics involved whereas, this study is focused on the dynamics and muscle contraction analysis to assess loads on bones and muscle fatigue during simulation of surgical interventions.

Methods: Nine medical students and 2 fully trained surgeons participated in the experimental sessions using a virtual laparoscopic simulator.

Modelling and evaluation of surgical performance using hidden Markov models.

Minimally invasive surgery has become very widespread in the last ten years. Since surgeons experience difficulties in learning and mastering minimally invasive techniques, the development of training methods is of great importance. While the introduction of virtual reality-based simulators has introduced a new paradigm in surgical training, skill evaluation methods are far from being objective.

A biomechanical analysis of surgeon's gesture in a laparoscopic virtual scenario.

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has become very common in recent years thanks to many advantages that patients can get. However, due to the difficulties surgeons encounter to learn and manage this technique, several training methods and metrics have been proposed in order to, respectively, improve surgeon's abilities and assess his/her surgical skills. In this context, this paper presents a biomechanical analysis method of the surgeon's movements, during exercise involving instrument tip positioning and depth perception in a laparoscopic virtual environment.