Abstract

Background: Surgical simulation training offers trainees the opportunity to practice surgical skills before entering the operating room. The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of simulation for learning instruments for burr hole surgery and whether this learning is translated to real instrument recognition with retention. Methods: Randomized trials of PGY1 neurosurgery residents and perioperative nurses were conducted, using PeriopSim™ for instrument recognition, as well as real instruments. Group A performed simulation tasks using PeriopSim™ prior to identifying real instruments, whereas Group B identified real instruments prior to performing simulation tasks. Nurses’ recall was assessed at seven days. Results: Sixteen residents and 100 nurses were recruited. All participants showed significant overall improvement in their scores for simulated tasks. Group A demonstrated enhanced accuracy and speed of identifying real instruments compared with Group B (p<0.001). Furthermore, knowledge recall testing at one week demonstrated retained learning, shown by 97% accuracy in instrument identification. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that recognition of surgical instruments improves with repeated use of the PeriopSim™ platform. Instrument knowledge acquired through simulation training results in improved identification and retained recognition of real instruments.