Abstract
PurposeWe evaluated the effectiveness of an original simulation training system in improving the suturing performance of medical students using a previously developed web application for scoring suturing performance. MethodsMedical students were recruited for this study and trained on vascular graft anastomosis. Prosthetic grafts were anastomosed and evaluated after orientation, and after 1 hr and 10 hr after training. Vascular surgeons were recruited as controls. Using a previously developed web application, suturing performance was evaluated on the basis of procedural time, coefficient of variation of bite (length of a stitch across the graft), coefficient of variation of pitch (interval between stitches), and skewness (symmetry of the angles between stitches). ResultsForty-eight medical students and 10 vascular surgeons were recruited. After 1 hr of training, only the students’ procedural time improved. After 10 hr of training, all scores improved compared with those in the first trial, and all students’ scores except procedural time were statistically similar to those of the vascular surgeons. ConclusionsTen-hour training improved all factors, including bite, pitch, skewness, and time. Our simple and inexpensive training system and web application for calculating anastomosis scores can be a useful open educational resource.
Highlights
Surgical skills and techniques have traditionally been passed down from experienced surgeons to beginners, and there are almost no objective methods to evaluate training effectiveness
Anastomosis of grafts or blood vessels is one of the most basic and familiar procedures for vascular and cardiovascular surgeons; to assess the effectiveness of our suture training, we focused on the thread arrangement in anastomoses
We had previously determined that bite, pitch, and skewness were associated with suturing symmetry and confirmed that bite, pitch, procedural time, and Operative Performance Rating System (OPRS) were strongly correlated[8]
Summary
Surgical skills and techniques have traditionally been passed down from experienced surgeons to beginners, and there are almost no objective methods to evaluate training effectiveness. Procedural time has been used as a gold standard for objective evaluation[1-3]. Anastomosis of grafts or blood vessels is one of the most basic and familiar procedures for vascular and cardiovascular surgeons; to assess the effectiveness of our suture training, we focused on the thread arrangement in anastomoses. We had previously determined that bite, pitch, and skewness were associated with suturing symmetry and confirmed that bite, pitch, procedural time, and OPRS were strongly correlated[8]. Since 2017, we have recruited medical students for a simulation training course including a 1hr-long experience with prosthetic vascular graft anastomoses during their clinical rotation in our department. An open access web application ( https://ojt- suture- eval- 240602.firebaseapp.com ) was developed that calculated the performance
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
