The Quiet Eye Phenomenon in Minimally Invasive Surgery

TL;DR

This study identifies and analyzes the Quiet Eye gaze behavior in minimally invasive surgery, linking it to surgeon expertise and successful task performance, with implications for training and assessment.

Contribution

First to report and analyze Quiet Eye behavior in minimally invasive surgery, demonstrating its association with expertise and successful outcomes.

Findings

QE behavior correlates with successful surgeries

Higher QE occurrence in expert surgeons

Potential use of QE in surgical training and assessment

Abstract

In this paper, we report our discovery of a gaze behavior called Quiet Eye (QE) in minimally invasive surgery. The QE behavior has been extensively studied in sports training and has been associated with higher level of expertise in multiple sports. We investigated the QE behavior in two independently collected data sets of surgeons performing tasks in a sinus surgery setting and a robotic surgery setting, respectively. Our results show that the QE behavior is more likely to occur in successful task executions and in performances of surgeons of high level of expertise. These results open the door to use the QE behavior in both training and skill assessment in minimally invasive surgery.