Assessment of a 3D printed simulator of a lateral ventricular puncture in interns’ surgical training

Abstract

Purpose

In this study, a simulator for training lateral ventricular puncture (LVP) was developed using three-dimensional (3D) printing technology, and its function of improving the skills of LVP in young interns was evaluated.

Methods

A virtual 3D craniocerebral simulator of a 51-year-old female patient with hydrocephalus was reconstructed with 3D printing technology. The anatomical and practical validity were assessed by all interns on a 13-item Likert scale. The usefulness of this simulator was evaluated once a week by two neurosurgeons, based on the performance of the interns, using the objective structured assessment of technical skills (OSATS) scale.

Results

The Likert scale showed that all participants agreed with the overall appearance of the simulator. Also, the authenticity of the skull was the best, followed by the lateral ventricles, analog generation system of intraventricular pressure, cerebrum, and the scalp. This simulator could help the participants’ learning about the anatomy of the lateral ventricle, effective training, and repeating the steps of LVP. During training, the interns’ ratio of success in LVP elevated gradually. At each evaluation stage, all mean performance scores for each measure based on the OSATS scale were higher than the previous.

Conclusions

The 3D printed simulator for LVP training provided both anatomical and practical validity, and enabled young doctors to master the LVP procedures and skills.

Keywords:

• Lateral ventricular puncture
• neurosurgical simulator
• surgical training
• 3D printing technology

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the [Foreign Cooperation Project from Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China #1] under Grant [number 2019I0023]; [Pilot Project of from Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China #2] under Grant [number 2019H0042]; [Education Reform of Fujian Medical University #3] under Grant [number J18011]; and [Qihang Program of Fujian Medical University #4] under Grant [number 2017-xq-1135].