The effect of continuous at-home training of minimally invasive surgical skills on skill retention.

Background: Skill deterioration of minimally invasive surgical (MIS) skills may be prevented by continuous training. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether unsupervised continuous at-home training of MIS skills results in better skill retention compared to no training.

Methods: Medical doctors followed a two-week interval training for two MIS tasks (precise peg transfer and interrupted suture with knot tying), ending with a baseline test.