scholarly journals Cryopreserved tracheal segments: a new tool for bench surgical training in thoracic surgery

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (8) ◽  
pp. 585-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avelina Sotres-Vega ◽  
Jaime Villalba-Caloca ◽  
Farid Ramirez-Zamora ◽  
Diana Pérez-Covarrubias ◽  
J. Alfredo Santibáñez-Salgado

PURPOSE: To present a new low-cost high fidelity bench model of cryopreserved trachea that can be used to learn surgical skills from medical students to cardiothoracic surgery fellows. METHODS: Ten tracheas were harvested from ten non-trachea related research dogs at the moment of euthanasia. Each trachea was trimmed in six or seven rings segments. They were cryopreserved and stored during 60 days. The day programmed for surgical skills practice, they were thawed to room temperature. RESULTS: Forty segments have been used. After defrosting, all the segments kept their normal anatomic shape and structural integrity. Two incisions were made on every tracheal segment and sutured with running or separate stitches with 5-0 polypropilene. There were no complications such as cartilage ruptures, neither tears on the mucosae, the cartilages nor the membranous posterior membrane. CONCLUSIONS: The cryopreserved trachea is a high fidelity, practical, reproducible, portable, low-cost bench model. It allows cardiothoracic fellows to learn how to handle a trachea, as well as to perfect their surgical and suture abilities before applying them on a real patient's trachea.

Author(s):  
Apostolos Fyllos ◽  
Aristeidis Zibis ◽  
Zoe H. Dailiana

AbstractDuring medical education, medical students are often frustrated by difficulties in translating theoretical anatomical knowledge and basic surgical skills (suturing, tissue and instrument handling, and local anesthetic administration) into practice. A common etiological factor for this difficulty, among others, is lack of a low-cost and easy-to-assemble low fidelity suturing model. The purpose of this study is the demonstration of a validated, practical, inexpensive, hand-shaped anatomy training model. It is addressed to medical students and graduates that wish to get acquainted with neurovascular anatomy of the hand and improve their basic surgical skills. The model requires only two latex gloves, cotton, and two different color markers per trainee to draw the course of large nerve and vessels. Construction requires less than 15 minutes. For validation, 80 students participated as volunteers in the demonstration course. They evaluated course usefulness and their own confidence after the course. According to the 5-point Likert scale, the participants’ confidence increased in a statistically significant way (p < 0.05). All participants (100%) stated that their skills were “significantly improved” in terms of instrument handling, anatomy studying, performing digital anesthesia, and suturing technique. Overall experience was rated as “satisfactory” or above. The proposed model enables safe gentle soft-tissue handling, and it resembles a realistic human tissue. Low cost, availability, and fast construction are the most important characteristics, making this validated training model appropriate for acquiring fundamental local anesthesia, respect for hand neurovascular anatomy, and suturing skills.


2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Érika Malheiros Bastos ◽  
Rafael Denadai Pigozzi Silva

Due to ethical and legal aspects involved in the handling of cadavers and animals the synthetic simulators are an alternative for learning how to suture technique plus the practice of various procedures such as incision and surgical flap. In this context, this paper describes and propose the use of a synthetic model manufactured from plates of ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) to teach primary surgical skills in medical students with no previous exposure to surgery. The model that provides the convenience of being easily reproducible, allowing the students in training can thus improve their skills before applying the technique in clinical practice.


2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Denadai ◽  
Luís Ricardo Martinhão Souto

PURPOSE: To propose an organic bench model made with fruits/vegetables as an alternative to complement the arsenal of simulators used in the teaching and learning of basic surgical skills during medical graduation and education. METHODS: They were described the training strategies, through the use of fruits (or vegetables) to the learning of different techniques of incision, sutures, biopsies and basic principles of reconstruction. The preparation of bench model, the processes of skill acquisition, feedback and evaluation were also delineated. RESULTS: A proposal for teaching based on an organic model with training delivered in multiple sessions, with increasing levels of difficulty, and with feedback and evaluation during all the process was structured. CONCLUSION: The organic model, being simple, versatile, portable, reproducible, readily available, and having low cost, is another option to complement the existing simulators for teaching and learning of basic surgical skills.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 628-634
Author(s):  
Rong Liu ◽  
Jie Li ◽  
Tongsheng Zhong ◽  
Liping Long

Background: The unnatural levels of dopamine (DA) result in serious neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Electrochemical methods which have the obvious advantages of simple operation and low-cost instrumentation were widely used for determination of DA. In order to improve the measurement performance of the electrochemical sensor, molecular imprinting technique and graphene have always been employed to increase the selectivity and sensitivity. Methods: An electrochemical sensor which has specific selectivity to (DA) was proposed based on the combination of a molecular imprinting polymer (MIP) with a graphene (GR) modified gold electrode. The performance and effect of MIP film were investigated by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) in the solution of 5.0 ×10-3 mol/L K3[Fe(CN)6] and K4[Fe(CN)6] with 0.2 mol/L KCl at room temperature. Results: This fabricated sensor has well repeatability and stability, and was used to determine the dopamine of urine. Under the optimized experiment conditions, the current response of the imprinted sensor was linear to the concentration of dopamine in the range of 1.0×10-7 ~ 1.0×10-5 mol/L, the linear equation was I (µA) = 7.9824+2.7210lgc (mol/L) with the detection limit of 3.3×10-8 mol/L. Conclusion: In this work, a highly efficient sensor for determination of DA was prepared with good sensitivity by GR and great selectivity of high special recognization ability by molecular imprinting membrane. This proposed sensor was used to determine the dopamine in human urine successfully.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Mark Stansbury ◽  
Erin Nelson

BACKGROUND Current workflow in GYN triage has medical students interviewing patients after triage by nursing staff. The optimal time to initiate patient contact is unclear. This confusion has led to duplication of questions to patients, interruptions for nurses and fewer patient encounters for students. OBJECTIVE Determine if a restaurant-style buzzer can streamline workflow in gynecology (GYN) triage. METHODS A Plan-Do-Study-Act approach was used. Stakeholders were medical students, nurses, Nurse Practitioners and physicians. Factors contributing to workflow slowdown: students re-asking questions of patients, interruption of nursing staff, confusion about optimal patient flow. The net result was fewer interviews completed by students. The project was introduced during clerkship orientation. Buzzers were provided on weeks 1, 3, 5 of the rotation. Weeks 2, 4, 6 no buzzers were provided as an internal control. After each clerkship, students received a survey assessing key areas of waste and workflow disruption. A focus group with ten nurses was also conducted. RESULTS From February-July 2019, 30/45 surveys were completed (66%) 1. Very difficult/difficult to know when to begin the encounter: 90% without; 21.4% with buzzer p<.001 2. Students re-asking questions: very often/often 96.7% without; 14.8% with buzzer p<.001 3. Nursing staff interruptions: 76.7% very often/often without; 18.5% with buzzer p<.001 4. The odds of interviewing 5 or more patients per shift are ~10X greater using the buzzer χ²=14.2; p<.001 CONCLUSIONS The 10 nurses interviewed unanimously favored the use of the buzzer. Introduction of a simple, low-cost restaurant-style buzzer improved triage work-flow, student and nursing experience.


2021 ◽  
Vol 536 ◽  
pp. 147809
Author(s):  
Mingming Luo ◽  
Zhao Liang ◽  
Chao Liu ◽  
Xiaopeng Qi ◽  
Mingwei Chen ◽  
...  

Vibration ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 551-584
Author(s):  
Samir Mustapha ◽  
Ye Lu ◽  
Ching-Tai Ng ◽  
Pawel Malinowski

The development of structural health monitoring (SHM) systems and their integration in actual structures has become a necessity as it can provide a robust and low-cost solution for monitoring the structural integrity of and the ability to predict the remaining life of structures. In this review, we aim at focusing on one of the important issues of SHM, the design, and implementation of sensor networks. Location and number of sensors, in any SHM system, are of high importance as they impact the system integration, system performance, and accuracy of assessment, as well as the total cost. Hence we are interested in shedding the light on the sensor networks as an essential component of SHM systems. The review discusses several important parameters including design and optimization of sensor networks, development of academic and commercial solutions, powering of sensors, data communication, data transmission, and analytics. Finally, we presented some successful case studies including the challenges and limitations associated with the sensor networks.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1489
Author(s):  
Bhaskar Parida ◽  
Saemon Yoon ◽  
Dong-Won Kang

Materials and processing of transparent electrodes (TEs) are key factors to creating high-performance translucent perovskite solar cells. To date, sputtered indium tin oxide (ITO) has been a general option for a rear TE of translucent solar cells. However, it requires a rather high cost due to vacuum process and also typically causes plasma damage to the underlying layer. Therefore, we introduced TE based on ITO nanoparticles (ITO-NPs) by solution processing in ambient air without any heat treatment. As it reveals insufficient conductivity, Ag nanowires (Ag-NWs) are additionally coated. The ITO-NPs/Ag-NW (0D/1D) bilayer TE exhibits a better figure of merit than sputtered ITO. After constructing CsPbBr3 perovskite solar cells, the device with 0D/1D TE offers similar average visible transmission with the cells with sputtered ITO. More interestingly, the power conversion efficiency of 0D/1D TE device was 5.64%, which outperforms the cell (4.14%) made with sputtered-ITO. These impressive findings could open up a new pathway for the development of low-cost, translucent solar cells with quick processing under ambient air at room temperature.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 467
Author(s):  
Emília Mendes da Silva Santos ◽  
Isabela Regina Alvares da Silva Lira ◽  
Hugo Moraes Meira ◽  
Jaciana dos Santos Aguiar ◽  
Raquel Diniz Rufino ◽  
...  

In this study, a new formulation of low-cost, biodegradable, and non-toxic biosurfactant by Candida sphaerica UCP 0995 was investigated. The study was conducted in a bioreactor on an industrial waste-based medium, and a central composite rotatable design was used for optimization. The best results, namely a 25.22 mN/m reduction in surface tension, a biosurfactant yield of 10.0 g/L, and a critical micelle concentration of 0.2 g/L, were achieved in 132 h at an agitation speed of 175 rpm and an aeration rate of 1.5 vvm. Compositional and spectroscopic analyses of the purified biosurfactant by chemical methods, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance suggested that it is a glycolipid-type biosurfactant, and it showed no cytotoxicity in the MTT assay. The biosurfactant, submitted to different formulation methods as a commercial additive, remained stable for 120 days at room temperature. Tensioactive properties and stability were evaluated at different pH values, temperatures, and salt concentrations. The biosurfactant obtained with all formulation methods demonstrated good stability, with tolerance to wide ranges of pH, temperature and salinity, enabling application under extreme environmental conditions. Bioremediation tests were performed to check the efficacy of the isolated biosurfactant and the selected microbial species in removing oil from soil. The results demonstrated that the biosurfactant produced has promising properties as an agent for the bioremediation of contaminated soil.


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