RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Skills assessment after a grape-based microsurgical course for ophthalmology residents: randomised controlled trial
JF British Journal of Ophthalmology
JO Br J Ophthalmol
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.
SP bjophthalmol-2022-321135
DO 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2022-321135
A1 Zhaotian Zhang
A1 Songshan Li
A1 Limei Sun
A1 Wenjia Yan
A1 Li Huang
A1 Jinglin Lu
A1 Qiong Wang
A1 Mengke Li
A1 Danying Zheng
A1 Yizhi Liu
A1 Xiaoyan Ding
YR 2022
UL http://bjo.bmj.com/content/early/2022/06/14/bjophthalmol-2022-321135.abstract
AB Aims To introduce and assess a course using grapes as training models for ophthalmology residents to acquire basic microsurgical skills.Methods Ophthalmology residents who were novices at microsurgery were included. Participants were randomised into a 1:1 ratio to a 4-hour training programme based on fruit models (group A) or virtual reality (VR) modulator and silicone suture pads (group B), respectively. Before and after training, questionnaires were designed to measure their self-confidence with ophthalmic operations and with their coming role as surgical assistants. After training, each participant provided their interest in further studying microsurgery and was assessed for their general competence of ophthalmic microsurgery on porcine eyes.Results Eighty-three participants were included, with 42 ones in group A and 41 ones in group B. After training, participants in group A performed better in the uniformities of the suture span (p<0.05), suture thickness (p<0.05) and tissue protection (p<0.05) during the corneal suturing assessment. The overall scores of corneal suturing and circular capsulorhexis in the porcine eye in group A were comparable to those in group B (p=0.26 and 0.87, respectively). Group A showed a more positive attitude to withstand the training for more than 4 hours (p<0.001), as well as a higher willingness to receive more times of the training in the future (p<0.001).Conclusions Training models based on grapes are equal to VR simulators and silicon suture pads to provide solid training tasks for ophthalmology residents to master basic microsurgical skills, and might have advantages in lower economic cost, and easy availability.Trial registration number ChiCTR2000040439.Data are available on reasonable request.