A Virtual Reality Endoscopic Simulator Augments General Surgery Resident Cancer Education as Measured by Performance Improvement

Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of death in the USA. The need for screening colonoscopies, and thus adequately trained endoscopists, particularly in rural areas, is on the rise. Recent increases in required endoscopic cases for surgical resident graduation by the Surgery Residency Review Committee (RRC) further emphasize the need for more effective endoscopic training during residency to determine if a virtual reality colonoscopy simulator enhances surgical resident endoscopic education by detecting improvement in colonoscopy skills before and after 6 weeks of formal clinical endoscopic training. We conducted a retrospective review of prospectively collected surgery resident data on an endoscopy simulator. Residents performed four different clinical scenarios on the endoscopic simulator before and after a 6-week endoscopic training course. Data were collected over a 5-year period from 94 different residents performing a total of 795 colonoscopic simulation scenarios. Main outcome measures included time to cecal intubation, “red out” time, and severity of simulated patient discomfort (mild, moderate, severe, extreme) during colonoscopy scenarios. Average time to intubation of the cecum was 6.8 min for those residents who had not undergone endoscopic training versus 4.4 min for those who had undergone endoscopic training (p < 0.001). Residents who could be compared against themselves (pre vs. post-training), cecal intubation times decreased from 7.1 to 4.3 min (p < 0.001). Post-endoscopy rotation residents caused less severe discomfort during simulated colonoscopy than pre-endoscopy rotation residents (4 vs. 10 %; p = 0.004). Virtual reality endoscopic simulation is an effective tool for both augmenting surgical resident endoscopy cancer education and measuring improvement in resident performance after formal clinical endoscopic training.