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Background: We present a surgical simulator, developed for the training of a laparoscopic surgery and in particular for mesh placement during an inguinal herniorrhaphy., Methods: Major technical issues related to virtual surgery training systems include virtual patient modelling, collision detection and collision response, haptic and graphic rendering, 3-D motion tracking and some special effects, such as bleeding, cauterizing and so on. Among these problems, real-time deformation modelling and collision detection are the most challenging research topics., Results: In this paper, we describe novel approaches addressing the above issues, which have been successfully adopted in our bimanual hernia repair simulator., Conclusion: The implementations of our new collision detection and deformation appear to work well, even at haptic rates for the limited scope of mesh placement training. More sophisticated techniques are needed for full organ deformation especially for blunt dissection simulation., (Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)