Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Aug 27, 2026; 18(8): 120441
Published online Aug 27, 2026. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.120441
Published online Aug 27, 2026. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.120441
Application of a three-dimensional-printed endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography simulation operation model in surgical training and teaching
Wen-Jun Zhou, Department of Hepatobiliary Pancreatic Hernia Surgery, The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510317, Guangdong Province, China
Jia-Wei Qin, Xiao-Feng Li, Department of Hepatobiliary Pancreatic Hernia Surgery, Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital, Guangzhou 510317, Guangdong Province, China
Cheng Li, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510925, Guangdong Province, China
Co-first authors: Wen-Jun Zhou and Jia-Wei Qin.
Co-corresponding authors: Cheng Li and Xiao-Feng Li.
Author contributions: Li C and Li XF conceived and designed the study; Zhou WJ participated in study design, collected the data, and drafted the manuscript; Qin JW contributed to study conceptualization, data analysis, and interpretation; all authors critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content and approved the final version of the manuscript; Zhou WJ and Qin JW contributed equally to this work and share first authorship; Li C and Li XF contributed equally as corresponding authors.
AI contribution statement: The entire content of the article represents original work produced by our team and contains no AI-generated scientific content. The main body of the manuscript, including the Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion was written by the authors. Original source files for all images included in the article can also be provided upon request. During manuscript preparation, which was initially conducted in Chinese, DeepL was used as a translation aid. After professional language editing by a specialized editing service, ChatGPT was used for minor grammatical and phrasing refinements. However, AI tools were not used to generate research data, perform data analysis, interpret results, or formulate scientific conclusions. AI tools also had no influence on the study design, data interpretation, figures tables, or the validity of the final conclusions. For the revision of reviewer responses, AI was used solely as an auxiliary language-support tool to suggest areas in which clarity or wording could be improved. All substantive revisions, including re-analysis of raw data, were performed manually by the authors. Following these revisions, AI tools were used only for limited linguistic refinement to improve grammatical accuracy and readability.
Supported by the Guangdong Medical Science and Technology Research Fund, No. A2024472; and Guangzhou Basic Research Program Joint Funding from the City and the University, No. 2024A03J0988.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Guangdong Second People’s Hospital (Approval No. 2024-KY-KZ-391-01). All procedures involving human participants were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The study involved educational evaluation and questionnaire-based assessment among junior doctors participating in a surgical training program.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to their inclusion in the study. Participants were informed about the purpose of the research, the voluntary nature of participation, and the confidentiality of their responses. All data collected were used solely for scientific research purposes.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. In addition, the authors would like to clarify that an earlier version of this manuscript was previously submitted to the Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research (BJSTR). During the submission process, a proof version of the manuscript was temporarily made available online by the journal. However, the authors subsequently declined publication, and the proof file was later removed from the BJSTR website. The current submission is a revised and updated version of the manuscript and has not been formally published elsewhere.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—a checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-a checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Due to institutional regulations and participant confidentiality considerations, the raw data are not publicly available.
Corresponding author: Xiao-Feng Li, MD, Doctor, Department of Hepatobiliary Pancreatic Hernia Surgery, Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital, No. 466 Middle Xingang Road, Guangzhou 510317, Guangdong Province, China. gd2h_digitallab@163.com
Received: February 27, 2026
Revised: March 12, 2026
Accepted: May 21, 2026
Published online: August 27, 2026
Processing time: 171 Days and 12.3 Hours
Revised: March 12, 2026
Accepted: May 21, 2026
Published online: August 27, 2026
Processing time: 171 Days and 12.3 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is technically demanding and difficult for beginners to master through traditional teaching alone. In this study, we developed a three-dimensional (3D) printed ERCP simulation model that incorporated key biliary anatomical structures for procedural training. Compared with conventional theoretical and video-based instruction, the model significantly improved trainees’ understanding of biliary anatomy, procedural proficiency, and learning confidence, suggesting that 3D-printed simulation models may represent an effective tool for ERCP training and surgical education.