Intensive Laparoscopic Training Shortens the Learning Curve of Laparoscopic Suturing in Surgical Postgraduate Students: Feasible or Not?

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of intensive laparoscopic training shortening the learning curve of laparoscopic suturing in surgical postgraduate students. Materials and Methods: Eighty-seven surgical postgraduate students participated in this study, including novice (N), junior (JR), and senior (SR) trainees. The N trainees were divided into novice control (NC) and novice experimental (NE) groups. The training curricula contain three stages: Fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery tasks, intensive laparoscopic suturing task, and laparoscopic enucleation model training. The NE, JR, and SR groups completed all three stages. The NC group just performed the first and third stages. The performances of each group were recorded and analyzed. Results: For the first stage, the SR group performed better than the N and JR groups. There was no significant difference in the post-test total scores between the N and JR groups, although the N group had lower pretest total scores. For the second stage, no significant difference was found in the post-test scores among the NE, JR, and SR groups, although the SR group had better pretest scores. For the third stage, the NE, JR, and SR groups had better performance than the NC group at the five exercises. There was no significant difference at the fifth exercise among the NE, JR, and SR groups, although the SR group performed better at the former four exercises. Conclusion: This study documented the feasibility of intensive laparoscopic training curricula shortening the learning curve of laparoscopic suturing in surgical postgraduate students, regardless of baseline experience.