Harder B., Bender H. J., Jonas J. B.

Universitätsaugenklinik, Fakultät für Klinische Medizin Mannheim, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Mannheim

Purpose: To evaluate the practicability of a pars plana vitrectomy simulator (Institute for Computational Medicine, ICM University Mannheim) to train an unexperienced person in performing essential steps of vitreoretinal surgery.
Material and Methods: Two residents unexperienced in intraocular surgery were shortly introduced into the pecularities of the device. They had then to run through a test parcours consisting of 10 balls located in a spirale-like fashion in the center of the vitreous cavity and close to the retina. Each ball had to be touched with the vitrectomy instrument for about 5 seconds before it changed colour. The test was re-performed nine times. Main outcome measures were the total time needed for each test to make the balls in the vitreous cavity change colour, and the count of accidental retina touches.
Results: The time needed for each test decreased significantly (p<0.05) with increasing number of the test. Both study participants differed significantly (p<0.001) in the time needed for each test, and in the count of accidental retina touches. The count of accidental retina touches was significantly (p<0.05) and inversely correlated with the time needed to perform the test.
Conclusions: The pars-plana-vitrekomie-simulator seems to be useful to train essential steps of vitreoretinal surgery to surgical newcomers, and to test their surgical perfomance in a standardadized and reproducible manner.

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