Laparoscopic training by use of a physical simulator and its application in the general surgery residency

Introduction Minimally invasive techniques have become the gold standard for a number of surgical procedures. The benefits include a decrease in morbidity, reducing the length of hospital stay and a faster return to daily activities. Material and methods An experimental, longitudinal, comparative, prospective, non-blinded study. A training program of 4 weeks’ duration was carried out with an experimental group of first and second year General Surgery residents and social service medical interns (group A); at the end of the training there was a test, where a series of exercises compared the residents who took the training program with a control group (group B) composed of residents from the fourth and fifth year who did not take this training. Results Upon analyzing the two groups, we observed a decrease in the average time by group A compared to group B. Overall, the 7 exercises show a difference in average time, with group A completing them in 5 min compared to group B's 12 min ( p < 0.05). Discussion This study shows that training in a physical simulator for laparoscopic surgery , for at least two hours a week for a month, is sufficient to improve laparoscopic surgical skills, reducing turnaround times by more than half compared to those who did not undergo this training.