Abstract

In medical education, the ultimate goal of training is to improve clinical outcomes and patient comfort. Surgical education is changing dramatically, and obtaining surgical competency is a perplexing process that necessitates acquiring a high degree of knowledge and surgical skills by learners. The purpose of this review is to describe the various types of simulation systems used in surgical education. The online database PubMed was used to perform a literature search for publications without any date or language restrictions. We used a combination of relevant search terms “(Simulation) OR (Simulator)) OR (Mannequin)) OR (Manikins)) OR (Bench models)) OR (Virtual Reality Simulations)) AND (Surgery)) OR (Surgical Education)) OR (Surgical training)) OR (Clinical training)” We independently identified publications and systematically screened titles, abstracts, and full texts of the collected publications. Finally, 30 articles were selected for data extraction. Surgical simulations were classified as low or high fidelity based on their resemblance to the real world. However, the fidelity level should be appropriate to the trainee’s training stage. The current review found the need for simulation to be increasingly significant in surgical education in educating trainees in technical and non-technical skills. One of the most significant advantages is that it allows the student to practice a surgical technique before doing it on a patient.

Key words: Simulation, medical education, fidelity, surgery