Evaluation of self-educational training methods to learn laparoscopic skills - a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Evaluation of two different self-educational methods (video assisted learning versus video assisted learning plus a nodal point operation primer) on learning laparoscopic suturing and intracorporal knotting.

Methods: Randomized controlled trial at the laparoscopic surgical training center, University of Tubingen with 45 surgical novices first year medical students being pretested for dexterity. After self-educational training for 90 min with either method (Group A: video assisted learning, Group B: video assisted learning plus a nodal point operation primer) participants had to perform five laparoscopic intracorporal knots.

Using the mind as a simulator: a randomized controlled trial of mental training.

Objectives: Laparoscopic simulators have been introduced as safe and effective methods of developing basic skills. Mental training is a novel training method likened to using the mind as a simulator to mentally rehearse the movements of a task or operation. It is widely used by professional athletes and musicians and has been suggested as a technique that could be used by surgical trainees.

Multimedia-based training on Internet platforms improves surgical performance: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Surgical procedures are complex motion sequences that require a high level of preparation, training, and concentration. In recent years, Internet platforms providing surgical content have been established. Used as a surgical training method, the effect of multimedia-based training on practical surgical skills has not yet been evaluated.

Reported effects in randomized controlled trials were compared with those of nonrandomized trials in cholecystectomy.

Objectives: Because external validity of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) may be insufficient, the performance of nonrandomized controlled trials (nRCTs) is increasingly debated. RCTs and nRCTs were compared using the example of laparoscopic vs. open cholecystectomy (LC vs.

Mapping utility scores from a disease-specific quality-of-life measure in bariatric surgery patients.

Objectives: To develop algorithms for a conversion of disease-specific quality-of-life into health state values for morbidly obese patients before or after bariatric surgery.

Methods: A total of 893 patients were enrolled in a prospective cross-sectional multicenter study. In addition to demographic and clinical data, health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) data were collected using the disease-specific Moorehead-Ardelt II questionnaire (MA-II) and two generic questionnaires, the EuroQoL-5D (EQ-5D) and the Short Form-6D (SF-6D).

Validity of the Czech, German, Italian, and Spanish version of the Moorehead-Ardelt II questionnaire in patients with morbid obesity.

Background: The Moorehead-Ardelt II (MA-II) questionnaire is the most frequently applied instrument to assess quality of life (QoL) in bariatric surgery patients. Our aim was to validate the Czech, German, Italian, and Spanish version of the MA-II.

Methods: A total of 893 patients were enroled in a prospective cross-sectional European study.

Mental training in dentistry.

Objective: Since fine-motor movements and complex procedures, which are often necessary in dental practice, can be compared to those used by professional athletes, the purpose of this study was to determine the impact of the mental training technique, established in sport science, on dentistry.

Method And Materials: In a randomized, controlled study, 2 groups of 20 and 21 dental students in their second semester (experimental group with mental training, and control group with conventional training, respectively), were evaluated at 2 time points (pre- and posttest) by measuring the effect of training by the criteria "knowledge," "process," and "quality" of a crown preparation on the computer-assisted Dental-Simulator (DenX).

Results: The improvements of the experimental group and of the control group from pre- to posttest could be distinguished for all criteria in favor of the experimental group, in which improvements of knowledge (F1,39 = 72.

Mental training in surgical education: a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of a cognitive training method on the performance of simulated laparoscopic cholecystectomy in laparoscopic training courses.

Summary Background Data: Surgeons are like professional sportsmen in that they have to be able to perform complicated, fine-motor movements under stressful conditions. Mental training, systematically and repeatedly imagining a movement's performance, is a well-established technique in sports science, and this study aimed to determine its value in training surgeons.