A study of instrument motion in retinal microsurgery

Reports on high-precision recordings of hand-held instrument motion during actual vitreoretinal microsurgery. The movement of a hand-held instrument during vitreoretinal microsurgery was recorded in six degrees of freedom. Data were acquired for 5 min using an inertial sensing module that has been developed for use with a commercially available microsurgical instrument. Maximum velocity used by the surgeon was estimated at 0.70 m/s, and maximum acceleration at 30.1 m/s/sup 2/. The rms amplitude of tremor in the instrument tip motion was estimated to be 0.182 mm.