• Jun Teishima, Minoru Hattori, Shogo Inoue, Kenichiro Ikeda, Keisuke Hieda, Shinya Ohara, Hiroyuki Egi, Hideki Ohdan, and Akio Matsubara.
• Department of Urology, Integrated Health Sciences, Institute of Biomedical & Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan;
• Cuaj Can Urol Assoc. 2014 Jul 1; 8 (7-8): E493-7.

IntroductionWe assess the retention of robot-assisted surgical skills among urologic surgeons.MethodsThe robot-assisted surgery skills of 20 urologic surgeons were assessed using a Mimic dV-Trainer program (Mimic Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA) consisting of 6 tasks. These 20 surgeons had no previous experience either using the Mimic dV-Trainer or acting as the main surgeon in robot-assisted surgery. The surgeons completed the program 4 times in a row; after 1 year, they completed it again for a fifth time. Performance scores were recorded using the Mimic dV-Trainer's built-in algorithm.ResultsFor all 6 tasks, there were significant improvements to the scores in the fourth trials compared with those in the first trials. The scores in the fifth trials did not significantly decline compared with those in the fourth trials. There was no significant difference between the fifth trial scores of surgeons with laparoscopic surgery skills/experience and those without.ConclusionOur results indicate that fundamental robot-assisted surgical skills can be retained in the long-term after they are acquired.

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