The role of simulator Promis2 in learning laparoscopic skill.

INTRODUCTION Laparoscopic surgery is unique and complex in nature, so the training is necessary before proceeding to operation room. Many computer aided simulators have been developed for the purpose. Our objective is to assess the improvement of basic laparoscopic skills after training in simulator. METHODS The fifth year medical students underwent training of three laparoscopic skills using Promis2 simulator twice weekly for 4-6 weeks. The skills are laparoscopic orientation, target pointing and objects transferring. Time, path length of instruments and economy of movements were recorded. The comparisons were made for these parameters between session first and the last using a Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS Ten volunteers completed the exercises in less time (186.3 +/- 55.4 seconds) than the first exercise (215.7 +/- 57.4 seconds) (P=0.0027). Both the right and left hand instrument path lengths were also improved from 4425.8 +/- 1284.3 mm in the first exercise to 3925.3 +/- 1313.6 mm in the last exercise in the left side (P=0.0219) and likewise from 4273.8 +/- 1859.4 mm to 3831.3 +/- 1717.4 mm in the right side (P=0.0027). Economy of the movement in the left handed instrument improved from 1114.4 +/- 453.5 mm in the first exercise to 966.8 +/- 411.1 mm in the last (P=0.0443) and in the right handed instrument from 845 +/- 398.8 mm to 771.4 +/- 370.5 mm according to the software of Promis2 simulator (P >0.005). CONCLUSIONS Training in Promis2 simulator improves the basic laparoscopic skills. The candidates become consistently faster with shorter path lengths and had smoother instruments movements. They also became significantly more consistent in their performance.