Video-based self-assessment enhances laparoscopic skills on a virtual reality simulator: a randomized controlled...

Hysterectomy rates are decreasing in many countries, and virtual reality (VR) simulators bring new training opportunities for residents. As coaching interventions while training on a simulated complex procedure represents a resource challenge, alternative strategies to improve surgical skills must be investigated. We sought to determine whether self-guided learning using a video-based self-assessment (SA) leads to improved surgical skills in laparoscopic hysterectomy (LH) on a VR simulator.

Twenty-four gynecology residents from two university hospitals were randomized into an SA group (n = 12) and a Control group (n = 12). Each participant's baseline performance on a validated VR basic task was assessed. Both groups then performed three virtually simulated LHs during which the participants received no guidance nor feedback. Following each LH, the SA group participants rated the video of their own performance using a generic and a procedure-specific rating scale, while the Control group participants watched an LH video demonstration. The LH videos of both groups' participants were blindly reviewed and rated by expert surgeons, using modified Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills scores (OSATS). Objective metrics recorded by the VR simulator were also compared.

There was no difference between the groups' baseline performances on the VR basic task. For the first LH, the OSATS-derived scores did not differ between SA and Control groups (9 [7-13] versus 9 [8-14]; p = 0.728). For the third LH, the OSATS-derived scores were higher for the SA group than for the Control group (17 [15-21] versus 15 [11-17], p = 0.039). Between the two groups, the objective metrics did not differ from the first to the third LH.

The use of a structured video-based SA leads to improved procedural skills in LH on a VR simulator compared to watching benchmark expert performance, in a population of residents with moderate experience in the operating room.