Porcine cadaver organ or virtual-reality simulation training for laparoscopic cholecystectomy: a randomized,...

As conventional laparoscopic procedural training requires live animals or cadaver organs, virtual simulation seems an attractive alternative. Therefore, we compared the transfer of training for the laparoscopic cholecystectomy from porcine cadaver organs vs virtual simulation to surgery in a live animal model in a prospective randomized trial.

After completing an intensive training in basic laparoscopic skills, 3 groups of 10 participants proceeded with no additional training (control group), 5 hours of cholecystectomy training on cadaver organs (= organ training) or proficiency-based cholecystectomy training on the LapMentor (= virtual-reality training). Participants were evaluated on time and quality during a laparoscopic cholecystectomy on a live anaesthetized pig at baseline, 1 week (= post) and 4 months (= retention) after training.

All research was performed in the Center for Surgical Technologies, Leuven, Belgium.

In total, 30 volunteering medical students without prior experience in laparoscopy or minimally invasive surgery from the University of Leuven (Belgium).

The organ training group performed the procedure significantly faster than the virtual trainer and borderline significantly faster than control group at posttesting. Only 1 of 3 expert raters suggested significantly better quality of performance of the organ training group compared with both the other groups at posttesting (p < 0.01). There were no significant differences between groups at retention testing. The virtual trainer group did not outperform the control group at any time.

For trainees who are proficient in basic laparoscopic skills, the long-term advantage of additional procedural training, especially on a virtual but also on the conventional organ training model, remains to be proven.