Impact of Laparoscopic Experience on the Proficiency Gain of Urologic Surgeons in Robot-Assisted Surgery

Purpose: The aim of our study is to assess the impact of skill in laparoscopic surgery on the learning of robot-assisted surgery by urologic surgeons using the Mimic dV-trainer (MdVT). Materials and Methods: Twenty-three urologic surgeons using the MdVT were assessed. Ten of them were laparoscopic surgeons certified by the Japanese Society of Endourology. Each of the subjects completed four trials of a program consisting of four EndoWrist modules and two needle-driving modules. The performances of all subjects were recorded using a built-in scoring algorithm. Results: In only one of the needle-driving tasks, Suture Sponge (that all subjects felt was the most difficult task), the scores of the certified laparoscopic surgeons became significantly better than those of the other subjects at the 2nd and the 3rd trials (p = 0.0236 and p = 0.0043 at the 2nd and 3rd trials, respectively). At the 4th trial there was no significant difference between the two groups with regard to the overall scores of any tasks. Conclusions: Our data indicate that familiarity with laparoscopic surgery is not associated with any advantage in learning the most fundamental techniques of robot-assisted surgery.