Abstract
Background
As the use of bedside emergency ultrasound (US) increases, so does the need for effective
US education.
Objectives
To determine 1) what pathology can be reliably simulated and identified by US in human
cadavers, and 2) feasibility of using cadavers to improve the comfort of emergency
medicine (EM) residents with specific US applications.
Methods
This descriptive, cross-sectional survey study assessed utility of cadaver simulation
to train EM residents in diagnostic US. First, the following pathologies were simulated
in a cadaver: orbital foreign body (FB), retrobulbar (RB) hematoma, bone fracture,
joint effusion, and pleural effusion. Second, we assessed residents’ change in comfort
level with US after using this cadaver model. Residents were surveyed regarding their
comfort level with various US applications. After brief didactic sessions on the study’s
US applications, participants attempted to identify the simulated pathology using
US. A post-lab survey assessed for change in comfort level after the training.
Results
Orbital FB, RB hematoma, bone fracture, joint effusion, and pleural effusion were
readily modeled in a cadaver in ways typical of a live patient. Twenty-two residents
completed the pre- and post-lab surveys. After training with cadavers, residents’
comfort improved significantly for orbital FB and RB hematoma (mean increase 1.6,
p<0.001), bone fracture (mean increase 2.12, p<0.001), and joint effusion (1.6, p<0.001); 100% of residents reported that they found US education using cadavers helpful.
Conclusion
Cadavers can simulate orbital FB, RB hematoma, bone fracture, joint effusion, and
pleural effusion, and in our center improved the comfort of residents in identifying
all but pleural effusion.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 16, 2012
Accepted:
January 22,
2012
Received in revised form:
December 1,
2011
Received:
August 16,
2011
Footnotes
Currently, Dr. Zaia works for Kaiser Permanente, Department of Emergency Medicine, San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco, California.
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
