title: Surgical simulation: a urological perspective.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Surgical education is changing rapidly as several factors including budget constraints and medicolegal concerns limit opportunities for urological trainees. New methods of skills training such as low fidelity bench trainers and virtual reality simulators offer new avenues for surgical education. In addition, surgical simulation has the potential to allow practicing surgeons to develop new skills and maintain those they already possess. We provide a review of the background, current status and future directions of surgical simulators as they pertain to urology.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a literature review and an overview of surgical simulation in urology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Surgical simulators are in various stages of development and validation. Several simulators have undergone extensive validation studies and are in use in surgical curricula. While virtual reality simulators offer the potential to more closely mimic reality and present entire operations, low fidelity simulators remain useful in skills training, particularly for novices and junior trainees. Surgical simulation remains in its infancy. However, the potential to shorten learning curves for difficult techniques and practice surgery without risk to patients continues to drive the development of increasingly more advanced and realistic models.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Surgical simulation is an exciting area of surgical education. The future is bright as advancements in computing and graphical capabilities offer new innovations in simulator technology. Simulators must continue to undergo rigorous validation studies to ensure that time spent by trainees on bench trainers and virtual reality simulators will translate into improved surgical skills in the operating room.
authors.affiliation: Division of Urology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Geoffrey R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Wignall
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Denstedt
authors.forename: Glenn M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Preminger
authors.forename: Jeffrey A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Cadeddu
authors.forename: Margaret S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Pearle
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Sweet
authors.forename: Elspeth M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: McDougall
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D013520:Urologic Surgical Procedures / Q000193:education*; D014584:User-Computer Interface