Telesurgery: Acceptability of Compressed Video for Remote Surgical Proctoring

Objective: To determine the clinical acceptability of various levels of video compression for remote proctoring of laparoscopic surgical procedures. Design: Observational, controlled study. Setting: Community-based teaching hospital. Participants: Physician and nurse observers. Interventions: Controlled surgical video scenes were subjected to various levels of data compression for digital transmission and display and shown to participant observers. Main Outcome Measures: Clinical acceptability of video scenes after application of video compression. Results: Clinically acceptable video compression was achieved with a 1.25-megabit/second data rate, with the use of odd-screen 43.3:1 Joint Photographic Expert Group compression and a small screen for remote viewing. Conclusion: With proper video compression, remote proctoring of laparoscopic procedures may be performed with standard 1.5-megabit/second telecommunication data lines and services. (Arch Surg. 1996;131:396-400)