Designing A Novel Vascular Surgery Practice Tool A Participatory Design Approach

As surgical education moves more toward Simulation-Based Training, surgical simulation must become more accessible to surgical trainees. Vascular anastomosis is an essential skill for surgical residents to learn, as it is used in numerous surgical procedures. However, the opportunities to practice this skill before attempting it on patients are limited. Practice on simulators can help improve this technique, but there is a scarcity of realistic, cost-efficient simulators for the acquisition of vascular anastomosis skills.

This study documents the journey of a user-driven design approach in developing a novel low-cost 3D printed Open Vascular Trainer for home use. The result of this process was Suture Lab, an anastomosis training kit comprised of a box model, a pack of Bioplastic Vascular structures, and a log Journal. A face validation was conducted to assess the appropriateness of the model with 4 participants (3 Vascular Surgery (VS) residents and 1 Expert Surgeon (ES)). All the participants rated the simulator to be a very good learning tool for open vascular anastomosis, although they suggested some minor feedback for improvements. Overall, the model appears to be an effective and inexpensive way to acquire open vascular surgery skills.