Original ReportsGlobal Collaboration to Modernize Advanced Trauma Life Support Training
Section snippets
BACKGROUND
The American College of Surgeons’ (ACS) Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) program was introduced in 1978 and has become the standard of care for the initial assessment and treatment of trauma patients. The course, which involves didactic sessions and skills training, has been taught to more than 1 million physicians and advanced practice health care professionals and is now offered in 86 countries.1 Historically, the surgical skills station of the ATLS program – which covers invasive
METHODS
From 2012 through 2017, the NGO sent formal surveys via e-mail to officials representing the following international ATLS programs (N = 64) regarding their use of animals or simulators as part of the course's surgical skills laboratory: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curacao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy,
RESULTS
Numerous international ATLS officials from countries that use animals for this course expressed a desire to switch to nonanimal simulation models, yet cited financial constraints as the primary transition barrier.
CONCLUSION
Through participation in the industry-NGO collaboration to modernize medical training, 22 ATLS programs around the world have successfully been able to replace their use of animals in the surgical skills laboratory portion of the ATLS course with more realistic TraumaMan simulation models that – unlike animals – provide superior human anatomy, significantly lower costs for ATLS programs, and improve training by allowing ATLS participants to repeat procedures until proficient. This novel
DISCUSSION
Training surgeons in trauma management requires teaching models that convey realistic human anatomy, allow for repetitive use to develop skill proficiency, and facilitate team training – all of which, unlike using animals, can be achieved using TraumaMan and other ACS-approved nonanimal training methods.
In addition to the problematic ethical issues associated with using animals in surgical training, the choice to use live animals or nonanimal methods during an ATLS course should be based on
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Achievement of effective cardiopulmonary trauma surgical skills training throughout the incorporation of a low-cost and easy to implement pulsatile simulation model
2021, InjuryCitation Excerpt :The global collaboration to modernize ATLS has addressed this issue, changing pig lab practice to plastic manikins. These models are optimal for basic surgical skills but can be very expensive and not real enough to train advanced skills such as cardiac and lung tissue handling [23]. In our proposed model real animal tissue can be obtained at a minimal economic cost and then frozen and stored.
Evidence, Availability and Future Visions in Simulation in General and Visceral Surgery
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