Training Modalities in Robot-assisted Urologic Surgery: A Systematic Review.

Area of Science:

• Urology
• Surgical Education
• Robotics

Background:

• Novel surgical techniques necessitate advancements in surgical training.
• Robot-assisted surgery (RAS) requires specific technical and nontechnical skills.
• Adapting training programs is crucial for effective skill acquisition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify available training methods for robot-assisted surgical (RAS) training in urology.
• To evaluate the effectiveness, validation, educational impact, acceptability, and cost-effectiveness of these methods.
• To assess the impact of different training methods on learning curves (LCs).

Main Methods:

• A systematic review was conducted following PRISMA guidelines.
• Searches were performed in Ovid Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Library.
• Included studies were screened, quality-assessed, and methods evaluated for their effect on LCs.

Main Results:

• Twenty-four studies involving 521 participants were included, examining dry-lab, wet-lab, mentored, and nonstructured training.
• Dry-lab training showed educational impact by reducing console time and was highly acceptable.
• Mentored programs and nonstructured pathways demonstrated benefits, with experience correlating to fewer complications and reduced operative times.

Conclusions:

• Robot-assisted surgical training methods, including dry-lab, wet-lab, and mentored approaches, are diverse.
• These methods appear most effective when used in combination.
• Further research is needed to optimize training pathways for validated educational impact and acceptability.