Simulation-Based Surgical Training Improves Surgeons’ Skills for More Complex Surgeries

An international research team, including researchers at Hokkaido University’s Graduate School of Medicine (Hokkaido, Japan), leading a randomized controlled trial across 10 countries found that while simulation-based training did not statistically improve initial learning curves regarding surgeon’s general proficiency, it did produce an increase of skills in more complex surgeries, with fewer total complications and ureteric injuries in the simulation group.

The trial followed 65 participants in 10 countries for 18 months, or to a completion of 25 procedures. Split relatively evenly by location, a total of 32 participants received simulation-based training and 33 received conventional apprenticeship-style training. Both remained supervised by more experienced surgeons. Altogether, the participants performed a total of 1,140 surgeries, either semi-rigid or flexible ureteroscopy to remove ureteral or renal stones, respectively, demonstrating “mixed results” in proficiency. The researchers also found that those who underwent simulation-based training outperformed the other group, scoring higher on a standard assessment for each surgery.

“Simulation-based training led to higher overall proficiency scores than for conventional training, and fewer procedures were required to achieve proficiency in the complex form of the index procedure, with fewer serious complications overall,” said one of the paper’s authors, Takashige Abe, Associate Professor of Urology at Hokkaido University’s Graduate School of Medicine. “It is expected that the results of the trial will have a positive impact for advanced procedural training beyond the fields of surgery and urology in order to promote patients’ safety as well as better surgical outcomes.”

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