Low-cost laparoscopic simulator - viable way of enabling access to basic laparoscopic training for medical students?

BACKGROUND: Commercial laparoscopic simulators are costly and with limited accessibility. For this reason, medical students very often do not have an easy access to laparoscopic training important for their practical skills development.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Using materials available at a standard hardware store we managed to construct a laparoscopic training box with four eye-hand coordination modules that could substitute commercial solutions. In this work we provide a detailed instructions on creating such a training box. Moreover, to evaluate the functionality of our simulator we conducted a survey of students who were provided training using commercial box trainer and our homemade box trainer.

RESULTS: Students considered our homemade laparoscopic training box to be of comparable quality to the commercial solution. All of the surveyed students considered training using a low cost laparoscopic training box to be a positive experience.

CONCLUSIONS: Our homemade low cost laparoscopic simulator is relatively easy to construct and was deemed noninferior to the commercial laparoscopic simulator by surveyed students. Such type of laparoscopic simulators could enhance access to laparoscopic training for medical students.