The surgeon skill set in minimally invasive total knee arthroplasty

The traditional didactic approach to improving the skill set of surgeons has been shown to have minimal impact. Surgeons, like other adults, learn best by doing, by practicing what they do. and by challenging themselves to take on increasingly difficult scenarios. To be effective, surgical practice requires deconstruction of a procedure into key elements, each of which is repeated until optimal results are achieved before moving on to the next element. Given the multifactorial nature of a procedure such as minimally invasive surgery for total knee arthroplasty, surgeons need to introduce incremental changes into their operating environment to allow for realistic self-assessment during postoperative self-debriefing. One technique, visualization, can be used for virtual practice. In the future, surgical simulators may allow for true virtual practice as well as systematic recording of results. However, psychomotor skills are only one component of surgical success. Intuition and innovation are also key, but these components are more difficult to teach and to learn. The key ingredient to successful practice and ultimate self-improvement in surgery, as in other pursuits in life, is that a person be self-motivated and competitive and have a strong desire to improve coupled with appropriate practice routines that can lead to improvement.