Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SURGERY
Volume 215, Issue 5, Pages 927-929Publisher
EXCERPTA MEDICA INC-ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2018.01.016
Keywords
Tele-mentored surgery; Life-saving-interventions; Telemedicine; Combat injury
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Background: Damage-control and emergency surgical procedures in trauma have the potential to save lives. They may occasionally not be performed due to clinician inexperience or lack of comfort and knowledge. Methods: Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) non-surgeon Medical Officers (MOs) participated in a live tissue training exercise. They received tele-mentoring assistance using a secure video-conferencing application on a smartphone/tablet platform. Feasibility of tele-mentored surgery was studied by measuring their effectiveness at completing a set series of tasks in this pilot study. Additionally, their comfort and willingness to perform studied procedures was gauged using pre- and post-study surveys. Results: With no pre-procedural teaching, participants were able to complete surgical airway, chest tube insertion and resuscitative thoracotomy with 100% effectiveness with no noted complications. Comfort level and willingness to perform these procedures were improved with tele-mentoring. Participants felt that tele-mentored surgery would benefit their performance of resuscitative thoracotomy most. Conclusion: The use of tele-mentored surgery to assist non-surgeon clinicians in the performance of damage-control and emergency surgical procedures is feasible. More study is required to validate its effectiveness. (c) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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