French translation and validation of the OSATS tool for the assessment of surgical skill

Aim of the study: The OSATS rating scale is one of the tools most widely used in the scientific literature for assessing technical surgical skill. The aim of this study was to translate this scale into French (OSATS-FR) and validate it.

Methods: OSATS was translated into French by two independent translators. The two translations were pooled and back-translated by a third translator into English to produce a consensus version (OSATS-FR). Three independent assessors then used it to assess surgical skill in tracheostomy videos. The reproducibility of the scoring was measured.

Results: The OSATS-FR version was easily understood and used by all three assessors. In all, 18 procedures were assessed, performed by 14 interns and 4 senior surgeons. The mean OSATS-FR score was 18.6±4.08 for the interns and 31.6±1.62 for the seniors (p<0.0001). The Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.937 CI95% [0.867-1.269] between assessors 1 and 2, 0.977 CI95% [0.899-1.149] between assessors 1 and 3, and 0.965 CI95% [0.876-1.196] between assessors 2 and 3. Cronbach's alpha was greater than 0.9 for each assessor.

Conclusion: OSATS-FR can distinguish between two groups with different surgical expertise and assess surgical skill with an inter-assessor reproducibility and internal consistency comparable to those of the English version.