Evaluation of a surgical simulator as used by students with different experience levels.
BACKGROUND
Historically, the operating room has been the training setting for both surgeons and students. Nowadays, an alternative is represented by surgical simulators. In the same way a not-very-well-built mirror cannot reflect trustworthy images (distortion), a not well-built, calibrated or programmed simulator will be unable to reflect the training level of the operator. Our aim is to indirectly evaluate the Surgical SIM® simulator.


METHODS
Twelve surgical residents were classified according to novices, intermediates and experts, and 15 tasks were applied with three dimensions of evaluation in each using the Surgical SIM® simulator. Pearson's correlation test was used to establish validity.


RESULTS
In general, from the three dimensions evaluated, results showed a statistically significant difference for time (p = 0.001), trajectory (p = 0.01) and errors (p = 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Effectiveness of Surgical SIM® was indirectly demonstrated.
Centro de Habilidades de la Escuela de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud, ITESM, Campus Monterrey, NL, Mexico. eduardofloresv@gmail.com
Eduardo
E
Flores-Villalba
José Antonio
JA
Díaz-Elizondo
Adolfo
A
Leyva-Alvizo
Everardo
E
Fernández-Rangel
Oscar
O
Villegas-Cabello
Zanndor
Z
Del Real-Romo
D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000379:methods*; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000193:education*