Teaching hip surgery to orthopaedic residents: what's new?

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the published literature on the existing educational methods used to teach surgical skills, with a specific focus on hip surgery, to orthopaedic residents. Methods: A total of 31 articles were selected from a PubMed literature search on the topic of teaching surgical skills to orthopaedic residents, and 9 articles on hip surgery are included in this review. Results: Although several methods are included in the published literature to teach orthopaedic residents, only arthroscopy of the knee and shoulder joint is well described. Hip arthroscopy has a steeper learning curve and thus the use of simulation training as a complementary teaching method is even more important. Conclusions: Currently, open surgery skills for joint arthroplasty are largely acquired by apprenticeship learning. Simulation training in the form of virtual reality could contribute to better performance of residents, decreasing operation time and improving patient safety.