• Daniel J Solverson, Robert A Mazzoli, William R Raymond, Mark L Nelson, Elizabeth A Hansen, Mark F Torres, Anuja Bhandari, and Craig D Hartranft.
• Department of Ophthalmology, Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, WA, USA. daniel.solverson@amedd.army.mil
• Simul Healthc. 2009 Jan 1; 4 (2): 98-103.

ObjectiveA virtual reality (VR) surgical simulator (EyeSi ophthalmosurgical simulator: VRMagic, Mannheim, Germany) was evaluated as a part-task training platform for differentiating and developing basic ophthalmic microsurgical skills.MethodsSurgical novice performance (residents, interns, and nonmicrosurgical ophthalmic staff) was compared with surgical expert performance (practicing ophthalmic microsurgeons) on a basic navigational microdexterity module provided with the EyeSi simulator.ResultsExpert surgeons showed a greater initial facility with all microsurgical tasks. With repeated practice, novice surgeons showed sequential improvement in all performance scores, approaching but not equaling expert performance.ConclusionVR simulator performance can be used as a gated, quantifiable performance goal to expert-level benchmarks. The EyeSi is a valid part-task training platform that may help develop novice surgeon dexterity to expert surgeon levels.

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