Development and validation of a novel home-made bench-top training model for retrograde intrarenal surgery

<bold>Purpose: </bold>To develop and validate a low-cost homemade bench-top training model to facilitate retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS) training.<bold>Methods: </bold>The RIRS training model (G-Model) was developed using a surgical glove and a recycled ureter access sheath. Fifteen participants including 10 residents and 5 urologists were enrolled. Designed training curriculum for residents was carried out. Face validity, content validity, construct validity and criterion validity evaluation of the G-Model were carried out.<bold>Results: </bold>The global score of face and content validity was 4.15 +/- 0.53 and 4.65 +/- 0.29, respectively. For construct validity, the overall modified global rating scale (mGRS) score was significantly improved [12.5 (5.25) vs. 24.0 (5.25), p = 0.004], and the total task time was significantly shortened (39.5 +/- 4.48 min vs. 24.1 +/- 3.81 min, p < 0.001) within residents after G-Model training. The baseline mGRS score and total task time of residents were poorer than those of urologists [12.5 (5.25) vs. 32.0 (1.00), p < 0.001; 39.5 +/- 4.48 min vs. 16.0 +/- 1.58 min, p < 0.001]. Spearman correlation analysis revealed strong correlations between residents' G-Model and real patient performance.<bold>Conclusion: </bold>The current study presented a valid low-cost easily accessible RIRS bench-top training model which could facilitate skill acquisition and translate to real-life scenario.