Introduction: While prior studies have evaluated surgical skills simulation and retention in highly resourced environments, there is paucity of data on the retention of surgical skills taught in simulation laboratory to undergraduate students, and virtually none from low-resource settings. We aimed to evaluate the trends in retention/decay of surgical skills among medical students in Ethiopia and determine whether regular intervention in the form of intermittent skills testing can aid retention. Methods: Forty-four final year medical students were randomly divided into two cohorts of 22 students each. All 44 were trained in surgical instrument identification, simple interrupted suturing and one-handed knot tying. A previously validated, standardized assessment was performed before training, immediately after training, and then at 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year for cohort 1, and before training, immediately after training, and at 6 months and 1 year for cohort 2. All areas learned were tested for general decay. Results: The baseline mean scores of surgical skills were 3.8/30 for instrument identification, 3.3/15 for one-handed knot tying, and 1.35/15 for suturing. At the end of the training, mean scores improved to 26.6/30, 11.2/15 and 11.1/15 (instrument identification +599% and +772%, knot tying +447% and +417%, suturing +237% and +260%, respectively, for Cohort I and II). At 6 months and 1 year, there was a significant drop in all the three areas tested, especially in knot tying and suturing. There was no statistically significant difference between the two cohorts. Conclusions: While our surgical skills course is an effective means to teach surgical skills to medical students, there is significant decay in abilities after 6 months. Conducting regular assessments does not appear to have any effect in helping students retain these skills. We recommend such surgical skills training be conducted at appropriate intervals, such as just before internship, to prepare student for active surgical practice.
