Can fatigue affect acquisition of new surgical skills? A prospective trial of pre- and post-call general surgery residents using the da Vinci surgical skills simulator.

Objective: To study the effects of fatigue on general surgery residents' performance on the da Vinci Skills Simulator (dVSS).

Methods: 15 General Surgery residents from various postgraduate training years (PGY2, PGY3, PGY4, and PGY5) performed 5 simulation tasks on the dVSS as recommended by the Robotic Training Network (RTN). The General Surgery residents had no prior experience with the dVSS.