Table 4.

Median (25–75th quartile) learning curve values of the anastomosis needle transfer task

	Run 1: Stitch 1–8	Run 2: Stitch 9–16	Run 3: Stitch 17–24	p values
				1 vs. 2	1 vs. 3	2 vs. 3
Laparoscopic (n = 16)
Time (s)	1570	1131	833	0.109	0.015	0.002
	(869–1933)	(963–1284)	(683–992)
Working space (m2)	4.9	4.5	4.5	0.011	0.024	0.352
	(4.6–5.9)	(3.5–5.2)	(4.0–5.0)
Off screen left (%)	1.7	7.4	7.3	0.044	0.044	0.877
	(0.8–4.2)	(3.9–17.5)	(3.8–11.9)
Off screen right (%)	1.2	2.2	2.0	0.408	0.074	0.379
	(0.5–2.5)	(0.7–3.8)	(1.6–3.2)
Needle precision (%)	60	60	63	0.278	0.271	0.421
	(16–75)	(28–84)	(50–88)
Total path length (m)	25	25	13	0.836	0.017	0.004
	(13–39)	(20–32)	(10–24)

Robot assisted (n = 30)	Run 1: stitch 1-10	Run 2: stitch 11–20	Run 3: stitch 21–30	p values
Time (s)	352	311	261	0.213	0.006	0.009
	(267–415)	(253–391)	(203–352)
Number of movements	609	589	483	0.673	0.028	0.010
	(484–747)	(485–694)	(409–621)
Off-screen total (%)	1.1	0.7	0.9	0.552	0.905	0.417
	(0.2–2.8)	(0.2–2.6)	(0.1–4.1)
Needle precision (%)	89	86	89	0.777	0.550	0.210
	(83–93)	(82–93)	(82–93)
Total path length (m)	7.9	7.4	6.6	0.902	0.138	0.026
	(6.3–8.6)	(6.0–8.9)	(5.7–8.9)

Data in this table represents median performance scores and 25–75th percentile range. Statistical differences were calculated using non-parametric tests (Wilcoxon). p values of < 0.05 (displayed in bold) were considered significant