Surgeons skills in measures evaluation

Herbella, Fernando Augusto MardirosDel Grande, José Carlos

BACKGROUND: Surgeons commonly estimate dimensions without the help of measuring instruments, a practice with importance to the right therapeutic choice, scientific purposes and legal matters. METHODS: 40 senior surgeons were asked to estimate measures of lines in cards (visual evaluation) and to draw lines with a chosen measure (motor evaluation). RESULTS: Visual evaluation is overestimated, and motor evaluation is underestimated.CONCLUSION: Measures evaluation without the help of instruments is prone to error.