Objective Assessment of Surgical Skills in a 2-Day Visceral Anastomosis Techniques Course hold in the Annual Congress of the German Surgical Society (DGCH)

Einleitung: Many residency training programs in the USA are incorporating simulation skills Laboratories (SSL) into their curricula after being established by the American college of surgery (ACS) in 2006.

One of the well-known SSL is hold yearly since 2005 in DGCH. it is subdivided into different courses over 4 days with different modules in station-settings and includes among others conventional visceral anastomosis techniques.

The Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skill (OSATS) developed in Canada and currently used widely by residency programs in north America to evaluate the efficacy of technical skill development outside the operating room in a bench setting. The aim of our study is to demonstrate the improvement of surgical skills through the participation in a selected training module using a validated international assessment tool.

Methodik: The 2-day visceral anastomosis course(VAC) divided into five training modules on animal models was selected for evaluation. Performance of the participants in one module (End to End Bowel anastomosis) was measured by randomized unblinded qualified surgeons using a task specific Checklist at the beginning and at the end of the course. The improvement in OSATS scores was assessed using paired T-Test. Participants were asked to perform a baseline bowel anastomosis independent of the course and their scores was analyzed as a possible correlation factor with final OSATS scores.

Ergebnis: A total of 38 surgical residents completed the 2 Days VAC.66% reported performing ≤10 Bowel Anastomosis since the beginning of their surgical training.21% were able to perform an End-to-End Bowel Anastomosis independent of the course and scored a mean of 15 ± 3. OSATS scores improved significantly after completing the course (p = 0, 000018). There was no significant correlation between OSATS scores with the baseline scores, number of already performed bowel anastomosis or with the current level of surgical training.

Schlussfolgerung: Our results show a significant improvement of the surgical skills of residents regardless of their training level after participating in the annual SSL of DGCH as measured by OSATS. We highly recommend the integration of SSL in the curricula of our national residency training programs.