Prior experience in micro‐surgery may improve the surgeon's performance in robotic surgical training

Abstract

SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: Robotic surgery has witnessed a huge expansion. Robotic simulators have proved to be of major interest in training. Some authors have suggested that prior experience in micro-surgery could improve robotic surgery training. OBJECTIVE: To test micro-surgery as a new approach in training, we proposed a prospective study comparing the surgical performance of micro-surgeons with that of general surgeons on a robotic simulator. METHODS: 49 surgeons were enrolled; 11 in the micro-surgery group (MSG); 38 n the control group (CG). Performance was evaluated based on five dV-Trainer® exercises. RESULTS: MSG achieved better results for all exercises including exercises requiring visual evaluation of force feed-back, economy of motion, instrument force and position. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that experience in micro-surgery could significantly improve surgeons' abilities and their performance in robotic training. So, as micro-surgery practice is relatively cheap, it could be easily included in basic robotic surgery training.