PULLMAN/USA, May 24th (BIERMANN) – Dr. Boel A. Fransson from the College of Veterinary Medicine at the Washington State University and his associates performed an evaluation study with a total of eight experienced and 25 novice individuals. The participants without experience were randomly assigned to a control group (n = 10) and a training group (n = 15).

Members of the experienced and novice training groups underwent two training sessions with a canine abdominal model. Using three tasks included in the McGill Inanimate Simulator for Training and Evaluation of Laparoscopic Skills (MISTELS), basic laparoscopic skills were assessed twice: one time before and then again after the two training sessions.

The laparoscopic skills in the novice training group were significantly higher after training than before. In comparison, participants of the novice control group showed no significant score differences between the first and second assessment. The increase in score by the novice training group in the second assessment was significantly higher than the score increase in the experienced group or in the novice group. However, the authors noticed that the score increase of the experienced group and the score increase of the novice control group did not differ significantly.

Dr. Fransson and his team believe that training basic laparoscopic skills on an animal model significantly improves the skills in non-experienced users. Individuals with experience in laparoscopy, however, seem not to benefit from such training sessions. In this group, improvements were only slight.

References

• JAVMA 236(10):1079-1084