Assessing human error rates in strabismus surgery

Sensitivity analysis could determine the rate of human error in strabismus surgery and reduce the need for repeated operations, according to results published online ahead of print by Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology.

Sander Schutte of the Department of BioMechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands and colleagues employed a variety of methods to investigate how to improve human-error influenced outcomes of strabismus surgery, including angle measurement, surgical strategy and accuracy. The influence of each of these factors underwent sensitivity analysis, and the results were compared with clinical trials.

The team found that it was possible to map desirable surgery trajectories mathematically, and that surgical recessions varied from the optimal trajectory by as much as 20%.

Thus the team concluded that quantifying the level of human error during strabismus surgery with sensitivity analysis could increase the accuracy of the measurement of the angle to be corrected, decrease the variability of trajectory and lead to more accurate surgery, thereby decreasing the need for repeated surgical interventions.