• J Morse, N Terrasini, M Wehbe, C Philippona, C Zaouter, S Cyr, and T M Hemmerling.
• Division of Experimental Surgery, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
• Br J Anaesth. 2014 Jun 1; 112 (6): 1092-7.

BackgroundThis study focuses on a recently developed robotic nerve block system and its impact on learning regional anaesthesia skills. We compared success rates, learning curves, performance times, and inter-subject performance variability of robot-assisted vs manual ultrasound (US)-guided nerve block needle guidance. The hypothesis of this study is that robot assistance will result in faster skill acquisition than manual needle guidance.MethodsFive co-authors with different experience with nerve blocks and the robotic system performed both manual and robot-assisted, US-guided nerve blocks on two different nerves of a nerve phantom. Ten trials were performed for each of the four procedures. Time taken to move from a shared starting position till the needle was inserted into the target nerve was defined as the performance time. A successful block was defined as the insertion of the needle into the target nerve. Average performance times were compared using analysis of variance. P<0.05 was considered significant. Data presented as mean (standard deviation).ResultsAll blocks were successful. There were significant differences in performance times between co-authors to perform the manual blocks, either superficial (P=0.001) or profound (P=0.0001); no statistical difference between co-authors was noted for the robot-assisted blocks. Linear regression indicated that the average decrease in time between consecutive trials for robot-assisted blocks of 1.8 (1.6) s was significantly (P=0.007) greater than the decrease for manual blocks of 0.3 (0.3) s.ConclusionsRobot assistance of nerve blocks allows for faster learning of needle guidance over manual positioning and reduces inter-subject performance variability.© The Author [2014]. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Journal of Anaesthesia. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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