[Education in laparoscopic surgery: national survey on current strategies and relevance of simulation training].

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic surgery demands from the surgeon specific operative skills. Learning -curves have been described for many procedures in this technique. In order to evaluate the avail-able laparoscopic teaching resources and meth-ods in Germany an opinion survey was per-formed.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Directors of 284 surgical departments were polled using a questionnaire regarding department and operation statistics, -laparoscopic education and availability of simulation facilities ("Skills Labs" SL).
RESULTS: The response rate was 54 %. 88 % of the department directors considered laparoscopic -simulation an efficient teaching method and 91 % felt that simulation improves operating room performance. A SL was available in 27 % of these -departments. The training modules most commonly offered were basic laparoscopic skills such as coordination exercises (100 %) and suturing techniques (89 %). The actual median acquisition costs amounted to 20 000 € in our evaluation, with annual running costs of a median of 1000 €.
CONCLUSION: Although most of the questioned surgeons acknowledged the value of SL, this method of education is not widely available in Germany. Therefore we feel that simulation training in Germany still requires stronger support. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart ˙ New York.