Background:
assess the degree of skills acquisition in laparoscopic intracorporeal suture in a group of novice surgeons after the attendance to a 21 hours hands-on course.

Material and Methods:
18 participants with no previous laparoscopic experience attended basic laparoscopic course for digestive surgeons. The training model is constituted by theory (3 hours), followed by practice on physical simulator (7hours) and on animal model (11hours). Attendants performed one simple suture on inorganic tissue. At the end of the course, each surgeon carried out one simple suture in the gastric wall on porcine model. Total completion time was registered (limited to a maximum of 7 minutes). To determine performance quality, precision errors, number of tears on inorganic tissue and end knot quality were listed.

Result:
Average suture completion time significantly decreased at the end of the training activity (5.03±1.47 minutesvs.2.81±1.19 minutes, p<0.001). Eight of the eighteen attendants were not able to complete the first suture in the established time limit. On the first day 44.4% error were observed, with a majority of precision errors (27.8%). At the end of the course, total errors were significantly reduced to 22.2%, the most predominant being end knot quality (11.1%).

Conclusion:
results show a significant improvement in intracorporeal suturing skills in novice surgeons, reflected by a significant decrease in performance times and an increase in simple suture quality. Attendance to regulated hands-on laparoscopy courses at the beginning of the surgeons’ learning curve possibly accelerates the acquisition of skills in laparoscopy.