title: A Novel Portable Foldable Laparoscopic Trainer for Surgical Education.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Training in laparoscopic surgeries is difficult due to high cost and limited opportunity of commercially available laparoscopic training. Many "home-made" trainers were reported to solve this obstacle, but they were either cumbersome or high cost, or both. This study aimed to create an available and effective trainer to enable the trainees in developing laparoscopic skills anytime and anywhere.
  
  
  METHODS
  The laparoscopic trainer contains clamshell-like plastic plates and an electronic device with camera function, which could be supplied into a serious of laparoscopic procedures. The training procedure is detailed in this study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The creation of the portable and foldable trainer led to the development of "home-made" laparoscopic trainers. The integration of clamshell-like plastic plates and camera function device resulted in a trainer with low cost and enabled the trainees to practice skills in intermediate-fidelity environment. Additionally, the teaching effects show that the 3DV and 3DP models were significantly better than the traditional anatomical atlas.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The trainer in this study was built to create a prototype of "home-made" trainer with flexible features and low cost. It can be considered as an alternate way of developing laparoscopic skills required in operation room.
authors.affiliation: Urological Surgery Research Institute, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China; Institute of Immunology PLA and Department of Immunology, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Xiangyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Urological Surgery Research Institute, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Jinhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Medical Training Center, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Jingyu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Medical Training Center, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Heqing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Medical Training Center, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Hospital Affairs and Education, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Liqin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.affiliation: Department of Hospital Affairs and Education, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Haitao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Department of Hospital Affairs and Education, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Urological Surgery Research Institute, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China. Electronic address: Jizheng023@aliyun.com.
authors.forename: Ji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zheng
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000193:education*; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D000066908:Simulation Training / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Medical Knowledge; Patient Care; Practice-Based Learning and Improvement; laparoscopy; simulation; surgical education; training