Evaluation of an innovative three-dimensional liver model

In hepatic surgery, extensive skills and experience are indispensable and require time to master. However, there has been a recent global shortage of general surgeon candidates, who tend to have limited working hours and low surgical exposure. Learning about safe hepatectomy requires an easy understanding of the patient’s unique liver anatomy and conducting physical simulations. To solve this problem, we developed a new three-dimensional (3D) liver model that reproduces the conditions of the parenchyma with emulation capabilities, the Simulation Model Assisting Resection Technique for Liver (SMART Liver). This study evaluated the feasibility of using SMART Liver. Twenty-two professional surgeons out of 32 doctors in five institutes in Kitakyushu city were interviewed about the emulation function after watching an instructional video on the perspectives of professionals using the semantic differential method on a 5-point scale. Differences were evaluated using Wilcoxon signed -rank tests. Statistical analyses were performed using R software (R i386 3.5.1). A p -value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The SMART Liver had a median score of 4 on a 5-point scale. Specialists gave high levels of praise ( p < 0.05). The SMART Liver is feasible for emulation functionality and physical simulation.