Automated Quality Assessment in Distal Gastrectomy

A new computer vision model shows that the Critical View of Quality (CVQ) can enhance lymphadenectomy quality in gastric cancer surgery.

• CVQ correlates positively with lymph node yield (r=0.485, p<0.001), with retrieval increasing from 28.9 to 47.6 nodes across quartiles (p<0.001).
• Lower CVQ scores link to older age, higher BMI, ASA classification, male sex, and surgeon variability (all p<0.05).

This automated assessment may help surgeons evaluate intraoperative performance more consistently.

• The model achieved impressive average precision of 91.5%.