Training of surgical skills

Surgeons require specialized motor skills, especially for endoscopic surgery through the abdomen. Nickel et al. (2015) report the results of a study with two learning methods for motor skill training. The VR group underwent a virtual reality training (VR group), the Box group participated in a mixture of online courses and classical training of motor skill with the so-called Box-trainer.

The primary dependent variable was the result on the OSATS test (interval scaled, normally distributed, high scores = good performance). Several additional dependent variables were assessed, including a knowledge test (interval scaled), operation time (dichotomized, above or below 80 min), and efficiency ratings (ordinal scale, 1=bad ... 5=good).

Here we look at the speed of the operation. The publication states the following:

“Laparoscopy-naïve medical students were randomized into two groups. [...] The VR group completed the operation more often within 80 min than the Box group (53% vs. 46%). The percentages correspond to 27 successes (out of 51) in the VR group and 21 successes (out of 46) in the Box group.”