PS8-03: INITIAL REPORT ON THE IMPACT OF A PERFUSED FRESH CADAVER TRAINING PROGRAM IN GENERAL SURGERY RESIDENT TRAUMA EDUCATION
Daniel Grabo, MD, David Borgstrom, MD; West Virginia University

Background: Operative trauma volume for general surgery residents training today continues to decline to dangerous levels. General surgery residents (GSR) at our academic medical center participate in a perfused fresh cadaver training program to mitigate these deficiencies. This pilot study examines the initial impact of a trauma exposure and management course utilizing this training model for our general surgery residents.

Methods: From July through October 2018 GSR rotating on the trauma service and ranging in post graduate year (PGY) 1 through 4 participated in twice monthly trauma surgery exposure and management sessions utilizing perfused fresh cadavers. Key areas identified for skills training and education included penetrating neck injury, penetrating chest injury, complex abdominal injury, and lower extremity vascular injury with fasciotomies. GSR completed web-based surveys assessing confidence in their own perceived ability to manage these key injuries and perform critical procedures using a five-point Likert scale (1 = no confidence; 5 = completely confident) both before (PRE) and after (POST) training sessions.

Results: Sixteen categorical GSR (25% PGY 4; 31.25% PGY 2; 43.75% PGY 1) participated in the trauma skills and education training sessions. All PGY 1 and 2 GSR surveyed, reported increases in confidence in all skills sets included in the training sessions. PGY 4 residents reported significant increase in confidence in most skills sets including surgical airway (2.0 (±0.0) vs. 3.33 (±0.57), p = 0.005), emergent resuscitative thoracotomy and management of cardiac injury (1.25 (±0.5) vs. 3.33 (±0.57), p = 0.004), and management of abdominal vascular injury (1.75 (±0.5) vs. 3.0 (±0.0), p = 0.008). In addition, there was a trend towards increase in confidence for management of cervical and lower extremity vascular injuries as well as fasciotomies.

Conclusion: The integration of a perfused fresh cadaver into surgical training and education provides a high fidelity and dynamic model for training general surgery residents in operative trauma exposure and surgical skills. Additional studies which include critical task analysis are needed for further development and validation of this novel training and assessment method.