Development and validation of a pediatric laparoscopic surgery simulator

Force-Sensing Enhanced Simulation Environment (ForSense) for laparoscopic surgery training and assessment

“…A number of modifications were made to the existing Pediatric Laparoscopic Surgery (PLS) box trainer simulator. 12 First, a replacement base was manufactured using a 3D-printer (Fig 1, a). This base incorporated a 55 3 32-mm cutout space at the site in which simulation task items would be positioned normally.…”

“…Participants were stratified into novice, intermediate, and expert surgeon groups based on recent clinical experience involving <10, 10-50, or $50 laparoscopic procedures involving intracorporeal suturing. 12 Novices were medical students or junior doctors, intermediates were surgeons-in-training, and experts were senior level surgeons-in-training or consultant surgeons (#5 years since their full qualification). After obtaining informed consent, participants were shown a short, prerecorded instructional video and allowed 1 minute to familiarize with the task setup.…”

“…12 Raw task scores were not normalized (ie, divided by a target score) to receive equivalent range of scores among tasks and weighting toward a composite score. 9,10 A maximum allowable peak force of 1.5 N was assigned for both tasks, and the number of times this threshold was breached in each task repetition was regarded as the force error.…”

Analysis of motion in laparoscopy: the deconstruction of an intra-corporeal suturing task

“…It teaches depth perception, visual-spatial perception, the ability to use both hands in a complementary manner, and fosters the development of visual and tactile cues as to the amount of force and traction required for actual laparoscopic suturing and knot-tying. This relevance makes candidates more likely to practice in an effort to master this task [6][7][8].…”

Simulation for Pediatric Surgery and Surgical Specialties

“…The first validated pediatric laparoscopic task trainer was developed at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada [45,46]. The pediatric laparoscopic surgery (PLS) simulator is similar to the SAGES/FLS adult trainer but reduced in dimension by a factor of 20 ( Fig.…”