Mirror glasses for minimally invasive surgery

Introduction The operator performing minimally invasive surgery is prevented from seeing the whole field with both eyes by the restricted small thoracotomy incision. To overcome this problem, we developed mirror glasses. Methods Use of these glasses was evaluated in terms of the time required for threading of sutures with endoscopic forceps. Three surgeon ligated thread a suture five times with and without use of the glasses in the box, and the mean time was calculated for each surgeon. Results The time required for ligation (mean ± SD) was 24.2 ± 2.9 s with mirror glasses and 27.0 ± 2.5 s without the glasses (p = 0.01). Conclusion The mirror glasses may be found useful for fine manipulation for minimally invasive surgery.