[Laparoscopic skills training -- novel methods]

Simulation for skill training has a long history in surgery. Initially, surgeons practiced on animals or human cadavers, which is costly and raises ethical questions. Emerging hygienic requirements lead to the development of "artificial" phantoms, on which suturing, anastomoses and other elements of the procedure could be practiced on. Similarly, in minimal invasive surgery surgeons need extensive practice to learn the correct techniques, and to acquire sufficient skills. Laparoscopy requires specific training devices, ranging from animal models to virtual reality simulators.

This work focused on physical simulators, development of affordable phantoms and adjoin tasks for a personal laparoscopic training box. Authors described five new tasks that were added to the classical curriculum.

The tasks included leading the line, ligation, preparation-ligation, leading a string and camera handling. Data was were derived from a trial with 30 participants. They were categorized into 3 groups: laymen, general practitioner residents (non-surgeons) and surgery residents. Subjective assessment of the new tasks was performed using a 20-points questionnaire (NASA Task Load Index). Participants were asked about the usefulness, mental, physical, temporal demand, performance, effort and frustration. Accomplishment time was also recorded for each task (as well as the number or errors, where applicable). In addition, 10 consecutive task execution sessions were recorded, and in some cases, users' performance was tracked over a follow-up period of several days.

Participants considered the tasks suitable and relevant for education, and also approved them for self-education purposes. The three groups showed statistically significant differences in performance, based on their average completion time.

The follow-up studies showed continuous progress in the completion of individual tasks.