Virtual reality training in coronary angiography and its transfer effect to real-life catheterisation lab.

Aims: The aim of this study was to explore if proficiency-based training in a coronary angiography (CA) simulator can transfer acquired skills from virtual reality (VR) to the real world in order to improve early performance.

Methods And Results: Sixteen senior cardiology residents were randomised to proficiency-based VR training or control. Two consecutive CAs were performed on patients.

The role of a simulator-based course in coronary angiography on performance in real life cath lab.

Background: The aim of this study was to explore if a course consisting of lectures combined with simulator training in coronary angiography (CA) could accelerate the early learning curve when performing CA on patients.Knowledge in performing CA is included in the curriculum for the general cardiologist. The method, according to American College of Cardiology and European Society of Cardiology guidelines, for this training is not well defined but simulator training is proposed to be an option.

Technical skills assessment in a coronary angiography simulator for construct validation.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate technical skills in a coronary angiography (CA) simulator to establish the performance level of trainees and experts in virtual CA.The traditional master-apprentice way of learning CA is by practicing on patients despite a known risk for complications during training. Safe CA training is warranted, and simulators might be one possibility.

ProMIS™ can serve as a da Vinci® simulator--a construct validity study.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate if the ProMIS™ simulator could serve as a training platform for the da Vinci® surgical system and if this constellation could prove construct validity.

Materials And Methods: The da Vinci system was connected to the ProMIS simulator, which registered objective data concerning how the surgeon performed in the box environment related to time, path, and smoothness. Five experienced robotic surgeons passed four different surgical tasks with progressive difficulty.

European consensus on a competency-based virtual reality training program for basic endoscopic surgical psychomotor skills.

Background: Virtual reality (VR) simulators have been demonstrated to improve basic psychomotor skills in endoscopic surgery. The exercise configuration settings used for validation in studies published so far are default settings or are based on the personal choice of the tutors. The purpose of this study was to establish consensus on exercise configurations and on a validated training program for a virtual reality simulator, based on the experience of international experts to set criterion levels to construct a proficiency-based training program.

Proficiency-based virtual reality training significantly reduces the error rate for residents during their first 10 laparoscopic cholecystectomies.

Background: Virtual reality (VR) training has been shown previously to improve intraoperative performance during part of a laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of proficiency-based VR training on the outcome of the first 10 entire cholecystectomies performed by novices.

Methods: Thirteen laparoscopically inexperienced residents were randomized to either (1) VR training until a predefined expert level of performance was reached, or (2) the control group.

Appendectomy versus antibiotic treatment in acute appendicitis. a prospective multicenter randomized controlled trial.

Background: Appendectomy has been the treatment for acute appendicitis for over 120 years. Antibiotic treatment has occasionally been used in small uncontrolled studies, instead of operation, but this alternative has never before been tried in a multicenter randomized trial.

Patients And Methods: Male patients, 18-50 years of age, admitted to six different hospitals in Sweden between 1996 and 1999 were enrolled in the study.

Is the learning curve for laparoscopic fundoplication determined by the teacher or the pupil?

Background: For all surgical procedures, a surgeons' learning curve can be anticipated during which complication rates are increased. The aims of this study were to evaluate individual learning curves for a group of surgeons performing laparoscopic fundoplication and to evaluate if the Procedicus MIST-simulator (Mentice Inc., Göteborg, Sweden) accurately predicts surgical performance.