Comparison of Textbook Versus 3D Animation Versus Cadaveric Training Video in Teaching Laparoscopic Rectal Surgery: A Prospective Randomized Clinical Trial From Tertiary Care Center

Digital 3D animation and cadaveric videos have been increasingly used in surgical education and provide tremendous opportunity to develop new surgical educational tools, particularly during this Coronavirus-19 pandemic period.

This prospective, randomized, blinded study is designed to compare the educational effectiveness of various educational tools including the surgical textbook, animation, and cadaveric videos in laparoscopic rectal surgery among board-certificated surgeons. Initially, an electronic questionnaire assessing the knowledge about laparoscopic rectal surgery will be created and validated by the board-certificated colorectal surgeons. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses will be utilized to test the structure validity of the questionnaire. After the questionnaire will be sent to the graduates completing the general surgery residency program in Turkey, the volunteers will be then randomized into four groups based on the study material including a textbook, 3D animation, cadaveric video, and both 3D animation + cadaveric video. A step-by-step educational 3D animation and a cadaveric video will be prepared in order to teach the technical steps of laparoscopic rectal surgery. Volunteers in four groups were given 2 weeks to review their educational material. After the 2-weeks of the study period, the volunteers will be asked to answers the same electronic questionnaire imported in the edited live laparoscopic rectal surgery. Pre- and post-educational assessment of the questionnaire among the groups will be performed and compared.