Establishing a Training Program for Residents in Robotic Surgery

Objectives/Hypothesis: To develop a program for teaching robotic skills to residents. To assess the development of proficiency in basic robotic surgical skills in a resident cohort. Study Design: Prospective educational project using a commercially available surgical robot. Residents use a surgical robot to complete a designated set of tasks intended to simulate surgical maneuvers. Performance is analyzed for errors and total time of procedure. Methods: Otolaryngology residents are introduced to robotic surgery with a tutorial on the usage of the da Vinci Surgical System (Intuitive Surgical, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA). Participants perform defined exercises accomplishing the following tasks: circular pin transfer, simultaneous bimanual carrying, precision bead drop, needle passing, and suture tying. Performance of these tasks can be quantitatively assessed. Results: An educational program for teaching residents basic robotic skills can easily be introduced into a residency program. Resident progress in acquiring robotic surgical skills can be measured. The analysis of variance for composite score revealed statistically significant effects for task (F-4,F-24 = 8.11, P < .01) and trial (F-2,F-12 = 5.71, P < .01). Conclusions: Robotic surgery will likely become an integral part of otolaryngologic surgical practice. Training programs in robotic surgery need to be formally established in residency programs. We present a preliminary program for introducing robotic surgical skills in residency training.