BJU international
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Transfer of cysto-urethroscopy skills from a virtual-reality simulator to the operating room: a randomized controlled trial.
To assess whether real-time cysto-urethroscopy (CUS) performance improves by simulator-based training (criterion or predictive validity), addressing the research question 'Does practical skills training on the URO Mentor (UM, Simbionix USA Corp., Cleveland, OH, USA) virtual-reality simulator improve the performance of flexible CUS in patients'. ⋯ The results showed that interns who had trained on UM outperformed controls for a CUS procedure in a patient. Training for CUS on the UM is to be recommended for learning to respect tissue, procedural knowledge, flow of procedure and forward planning. Use of the UM to train interns with a specific interest in a surgical speciality in handling instruments, and time and motion, seems to be of limited value.