A systematic review of validated sinus surgery simulators

BackgroundSimulation provides a safe and effective opportunity to develop surgical skills. A variety of endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) simulators has been described in the literature. Validation of these simulators allows for effective utilisation in training. Objective of reviewTo conduct a systematic review of the published literature to analyse the evidence for validated ESS simulation. Search strategyPubmed, Embase, Cochrane and Cinahl were searched from inception of the databases to 11 January 2017. Evaluation methodTwelve thousand five hundred and sixteen articles were retrieved of which 10 112 were screened following the removal of duplicates. Thirty-eight full-text articles were reviewed after meeting search criteria. Evidence of face, content, construct, discriminant and predictive validity was extracted. ResultsTwenty articles were included in the analysis describing 12 ESS simulators. Eleven of these simulators had undergone validation: 3 virtual reality, 7 physical bench models and 1 cadaveric simulator. Seven of the simulators were shown to have face validity, 7 had construct validity and 1 had predictive validity. None of the simulators demonstrated discriminate validity. ConclusionThis systematic review demonstrates that a number of ESS simulators have been comprehensively validated. Many of the validation processes, however, lack standardisation in outcome reporting, thus limiting a meta-analysis comparison between simulators.