H.22 Rotary platform for surgical foot pedals

Ophthalmology is a unique surgical subspecialty in that the case volume is high (10-20 surgeries in one operating room daily) due to short surgical cases (often under 20 minutes for cataract surgery). Cataract surgery is the most commonly performed surgical procedure in the United States and surgical turnover time is paramount in efficiently addressing this need. The surgeon operates temporally (by the patient’s ear) on the same side of the surgical eye and uses foot pedals to control the operating microscope and surgical equipment. Between cases, a member of the surgical team must get on the floor to turn these pedals frequently for changing laterality (i.e. right eye to left eye). This is difficult not only ergonomically for nursing staff but also adds risk of injury (standing into surgical microscopes or lights) and the risk of contaminating the surgical field once the patient is draped.

There is currently no good alternative to manually “flipping” these pedals between cases. Sometimes, a piece of foam or surgical towel is placed under each pedal to reduce static friction on the floor, but they still must be “kicked” inefficiently to rotate them into the appropriate position.

A platform for these two surgical foot pedals which would remain stable during surgery but easily manipulable by foot between cases would add both efficiency and safety to ocular operating rooms around the country and the world