A new study has said that warm-up exercises of about 15 - 20 minutes duration will significantly improve surgeons' performances. Simple surgical exercises prior to an operation betters the proficiency of surgical skills for surgeons of all experience levels.
The researchers found that a warm-up of both psychomotor and cognitive skills raises surgeons' alertness to a higher level for surgical procedures and improves performance for fatigued surgeons."Warm-up exercises are a 'common sense' practice in many high-stakes professions, such as professional sports or dance. This study begins to lay a scientific foundation for adopting this approach in routine surgical practice, which has become increasingly rigorous and demanding," said Kanav Kahol, Ph.D., department of biomedical informatics, Arizona State University, Tempe.
Forty-six surgeons across varying specialties and experience levels participated in the study. Subjects performed standardized exercises as a preoperative warm-up.
Afterwards, the standardized exercises were repeated in randomized order to examine proficiencies in psychomotor and cognitive skills involved in surgical procedures.
Proficiencies were measured by gesture-level proficiency, hand-movement smoothness, tool-movement smoothness, time elapsed and cognitive errors.
Additionally, the researchers investigated generalizability of preoperative warm-up by following it with a different task, electrocautery simulation. They also examined the effect of the warm-up on fatigued participants based on their performance before and after night call.
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In addition, the warm-up exercises led to a significant increase in proficiency in follow-up electrocautery simulation.
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The study is published in the February issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.
Source-ANI
TAN