gms | German Medical Science

78th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

16.05. - 20.05.2007, Munich

LARYphant – Simulation model for education in endoscopic surgery of the larynx

Meeting Abstract

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  • corresponding author Tanja Quirrenbach - Westpfalz-Klinikum, Kaiserslautern, Germany
  • Norbert Stasche - Westpfalz-Klinikum, Kaiserslautern, Germany

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. 78th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. Munich, 16.-20.05.2007. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2007. Doc07hno046

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/hno2007/07hno046.shtml

Published: August 8, 2007

© 2007 Quirrenbach et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

Text

Introduction: At present the education of residents in the field of lasersurgery of the larynx takes place under the supervision of an expierienced surgeon during actual operations. This potentially puts patients at risk. The quality of education depends largly on the number of patiens treaded at the institution. In oderer to improve CO2-lasersurgery education, we have developed an artificial model with optical, tactile and physical qualities similar to human tissue.

We are thus abel to design realistic training scenarios.

Material and Methods: Clinical evaluation of the LARYphant model took place between May 2005 and February 2006 at different ENT departments in Germany. Residents and ENT-Specialists were given the opportunity to practice different laryngeal CO2-laser procedures using simulations of typical larynx pathologies.

Results: The LARYphant training session has been completed by 53 candidates to date (19 ENT-specialists, 34 residents).

Analysis of LARYphant evaluation showed that 87% of participants found the anatomical accuracy of the model to be good or very good and about 90% found cutting characteristics with CO2-laser to be good or very good and 79% found accuracy of textural accuracy to be good or very good. All participants found the LARYphant to be good or very good for training purposes.

Conclusion: Extensive research in materials led to the development of materials for a larynx model that closely resembles the human larynx in textural, optical and laser-surgical characteristics. The LARYphant model described here seem to be a useful supplement to conventional training of residents and specialists in laser microsurgery.


References

1.
Stasche N, Quirrenbach T, Bärmann M, Krebs M, Harraß M, Friedrich K. IMOLA – ein interventionsfähiges Larynxmodell. Ausbildung in der transoralen Lasermikrochirurgie der oberen Atemwege. HNO. 2005;53: 869-75.