[Investigation of laparoscopic bimanual technic education with laparoscopic training box]

In some surgical wards residents start to do laparoscopic operations using both hands, while in other places they only use their dominant hand, and only start to use both hands later. There are no data at the moment about which method is more effective.

We divided 20 students with no laparoscopic experience into 2 groups: one group practised one hand at a time (1K), the other group used both hands (2K) during the 5 days. On the last day both groups had to do every exercise with one hand and two hands as well, then they had to do 3 new exercises, which needed both hands. We measured the time taken, and gave points for the videos taken inside the training box based on OSATS. For statistical analysis we used t-tests, p < 0.05 being significant.

On the first day, there was no significant difference between the 1K and 2K groups considering the time taken (518/500 s) and the OSATS points (87/84; 54/55 points). Both groups improved in the mean time and points (1K: 52%, 77% 2K: 50%, 70%) as well, but there was no significant difference between them. In the case of new exercises on the last day, there was no difference between mean time (1K: 425 s, 2K: 411 s) and points (53/59 and 56/52), but there was a significant difference considering the points given for bimanuality.

Based on our study, we cannot exactly state that the bimanuality needed for expert laparoscopic surgery would be easier to learn with immediately practising with both hands.