Huotarinen A, et al. – Authors here documented an easy, efficient and mobile way for training microsurgical skills during busy life of neurosurgical residency and resource challenged environment. They used Coffee–cup and smartphone (CCS) as for bypass training instead of a traditional microscope. The method was tested by two trainees at different levels of training and significant improvement was achieved regarding bypass performance. Even though the smartphone based training was in 2–D, there appeared improvement in the microsurgical performance with conventional microscopes which have 3–D capability. CCS also provided an easy method to record one’s microsurgical training. CCS improved both of subjects microsurgical performance, suggesting it as a good alternative for traditional microscope.

Methods

• Instead of a microscope, authors utilized coffee-cup and smartphone (CCS) as a training device.
• In this study, coffee-cup was the body for CCS and smartphone was functioning as magnification, illumination and visualisation device.
• Measurement of two residents performance on end-to-end artificial bypass before and after 5 days of CCS-based training was done.

Results

• Authors seemed able to quickly setup the environment for practicing microsurgical skills in any surrounding.
• After 5 days of training with CCS, significant development of microsurgical performance also with conventional microscope was observed.
• There appeared an association of learning curve with baseline performance.