AI analyzes surgical technique to improve prostate cancer care

The movements of a surgeon in a procedure—called “surgical gestures”—can be used to predict patient recovery, according to Cedars-Sinai investigators. Their findings, published in npj Digital Medicine, suggest this technology could help surgeons refine their techniques and improve patient outcomes.

The investigators have developed an AI system that analyzes surgeons’ techniques during prostate cancer surgery, helping identify the surgical movements associated with the best patient outcomes while also predicting whether patients are likely to regain sexual function.

The AI system, called Frame-to-Outcome (F2O), analyzes video recorded during the nerve-sparing portion of robot-assisted prostate surgery, when surgeons work to preserve the nerves responsible for sexual function. Rather than relying on experts to manually evaluate each procedure, the system automatically identifies patterns in a surgeon’s movements—called “surgical gestures”—and uses them to predict patient recovery.

From manual review to automation

Prior studies of these surgical gestures demonstrated a strong relationship between the gestures performed by the surgeon—such as the sequence of instruments used or the speed of stretching nerves to move them aside—and the patient’s outcome.

By analyzing the gestures used during surgery, the AI system determined whether a patient was more or less likely to have a good outcome. Until now, this type of analysis required labor-intensive review by trained human observers.

“Our goal isn’t simply to predict who will recover,” said Andrew Hung, MD, corresponding author of the study and professor of urology at Cedars-Sinai. “We want to identify the surgical techniques with the best outcomes so surgeons can learn, refine and improve care for our future patients.”

Testing the system against experts

Investigators found that F2O matched expert human reviewers in predicting patient outcomes while dramatically reducing the time required to analyze surgical performance. The technology could eventually provide surgeons with objective feedback on the techniques most closely associated with successful patient recovery.

To develop the system, researchers trained the AI system using videos annotated by human analysts from 294 surgeries performed by 23 surgeons across four international centers. They then tested it on an additional 29 surgeries and found its predictions closely matched those of expert human reviewers.

“By identifying and interpreting the gestures that result in positive patient outcomes, we can offer surgeons insights that can help improve surgical performance and patient care,” Hung said.

A cross-disciplinary effort

The study was a collaboration between the Department of Urology, the Department of Computational Biomedicine and the Center for Artificial Intelligence Research and Education (CAIRE) at Cedars-Sinai.

“This work highlights what we can achieve when surgeons and computational biomedicine experts work together toward a shared clinical goal,” said Jason Moore, Ph.D., chair of the Cedars-Sinai Department of Computational Biomedicine and director of CAIRE.

“Bringing together these disciplines allowed the team to build something that is technically rigorous and genuinely meaningful for surgeons—and their patients.”

Who’s behind this story?

Sadie Harley

BSc Life Sciences & Ecology. Microbiology lab background with pharmaceutical news experience in oil, gas, and renewable industries.

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Robert Egan

Bachelor’s in mathematical biology, Master’s in creative writing. Well-traveled with unique perspectives on science and language.

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