BACKGROUND
The clinical motivation for the current study was that various instrument tables are located far away from the patient’s head, and the only way for the surgeon to access an instrument is via a scrub nurse. Thus, the idea for this study was the development and evaluation of an improved and conveniently positioned instrument table.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
An improved instrument table (IT) was designed, built, and tested. We assessed its use in 150 surgeries from 1 October 2013 to 30 June 2014 (group A), and another 150 surgeries without use of the IT from 1 February 2013 to 31 October 2014 as a control group (group B).
RESULTS
With use of the improved IT during functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS), preparation-time was extended by 0.1 min and the SLOT-time was reduced by 19.6%. The number of different instruments (35.3%) used was reduced, as well as the number of manual interactions with instruments (7.8%) and the number of manual interactions with the scrub nurse (66.1%). In addition, the ergonomics with use of the IT improved by 40.0%. The only potential disadvantage was a reduction of working space and thereby a constraint of the scope. Compared to the benefits, this problem is minor.
CONCLUSIONS
Conclusively, the improved IT is of value for everyday use in surgery and offers a great benefit for FESS, and may be useful in other kinds of surgery (e.g., duraplasty).

Keywords: Equipment Design, Endoscopy - instrumentation, Ethmoid Sinus - surgery, Operating Tables, Oral Surgical Procedures - instrumentation, Surgical Instruments