Cleft Palate Surgical Simulator: Improvement in Surgical Trainees' Knowledge and Confidence.

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Status: Completed

Conditions: Cleft Palate Lip

Treatments: Other: Educational

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04489680

Cleft Palate 3D Simulator

Details and patient eligibility

About

Trainees' experience in cleft surgery is limited due to the high-risk nature of the surgery and centralization of cleft care. Simulations allow trainees to learn complex surgical skills whilst ensuring patient safety. Existing cleft surgical simulators are over-simplified or prohibitively expensive. We developed and tested a high-fidelity yet cost-effective simulator for cleft palate repair.

Skeletal elements were obtained through high-resolution scanning of a pathologic specimen, 3D printed and then molded in plastic. Soft tissue components were formed through molding layers of silicone. 26 UK specialty trainees performed a vomerine mucosal flap and intra-velar veloplasty in a one-hour workshop. Pre- and post-simulation questionnaires assessing cleft knowledge and surgical confidence were compared for statistical significance.

Full description

Background: Trainees' experience in cleft surgery is limited due to the high-risk nature of the surgery and centralization of cleft care. Simulations allow trainees to learn complex surgical skills whilst ensuring patient safety. Existing cleft surgical simulators are over-simplified or prohibitively expensive. We developed and tested a high-fidelity yet cost-effective simulator for cleft palate repair.

Methods: Skeletal elements were obtained through high-resolution scanning of a pathologic specimen, 3D printed and then molded in plastic. Soft tissue components were formed through molding layers of silicone. 26 UK specialty trainees performed a vomerine mucosal flap and intra-velar veloplasty in a one-hour workshop. Pre- and post-simulation questionnaires assessing cleft knowledge and surgical confidence were compared for statistical significance.

Enrollment: 26 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Plastic Surgery Training Residents

Exclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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26 participants in 1 patient group

Surgical Trainees undergoing Cleft Palate Training

Experimental group

Description:

26 UK specialty trainees performed a vomerine mucosal flap and intra-velar veloplasty in a one-hour workshop. Pre- and post-simulation questionnaires assessing cleft knowledge and surgical confidence were compared for statistical significance.

Treatment:

Other: Educational