| SimTecT Healthcare 2006 | START Conference Manager |
To assess the aspects of surgical training that can be delivered by virtual surgery of the temporal (ear) bone.
Background
The University of Melbourne/ CSIRO temporal bone simulator is a two-handed, network enabled surgical training environment. The visual interface is a 3-D virtual temporal bone, with instrumentation including two-handed haptic (force-feedback enabled) devices including a surgical drill, sucker-irrigator, probe and facial nerve stimulator.
Methods
Eleven surgical trainees, none of whom had started advanced training in Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, participated in this trial. Participants were given a one hour tutorial on the performance of a cortical mastoidectomy on the simulator by a trainer on a second, networked simulator. A cortical mastoidectomy was then performed on a real temporal bone. The surgical task was assessed prior to, during and after both simulation and dissection of the real bone. The metrics assessed were surgical anatomy, surgical planning and psychometrics (i.e. technique). Completion of the task and errors made were tracked.
Results
Simulator training lead to an excellent transference of surgical anatomical knowledge and a good conceptual understanding of how to perform the procedure.
During real drilling, the quality of the surgical technique was related to the surgical landmark being identified. Technique was best when identifying the sigmoid sinus, followed by the incus, lateral semicircular canal, dura, bony external ear canal and the facial nerve.
Conclusions
Knowledge of surgical anatomy and planning are well transferred from the virtual to the real temporal bone, as are some aspects of technique.
| START Conference Manager (V2.53.1) |
| Maintainer: rrgerber@softconf.com |