A novel, cheap and easy to build FESS trainer

BACKGORUND. Simulation models have slowly been gaining a place in training and surgical skills, before attending the operating theatre. This paper presents a model that allows the trainee to practise the functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) training in a safe, non-patient facing environment.

MATERIAL AND METHODS. The method can be practised away from the operating theatre and the skills developed can then be transferred to the operating theatre. To create our FESS simulator, we use a cardboard tube and sheet, scissors, markers, cutter, foam, needles, catheters, plasticine, an inflatable balloon, a 10g lumbar puncture needle, one 5 cc syringe, two Blakesley forceps (straight and angled) and a 0° and 30° Hopkins rigid optics. In this simulator you can practise a puncture of the inferior turbinate, the endoscopic depth, remove a polyp, balloon dilation, a partial ethmoidectomy.

RESULTS. We describe a cheap and easy to build FESS training model, which allows the resident to practise this technique in a risk-free environment, while guaranteeing the reproducibility of the technique under similar conditions.

CONCLUSION. The high cost of digital simulators does not allow possible spreading this technology in every department. For that reason, the purpose of this paper is the acquisition of a set of skills that allow the resident to go to the operating room with clear concepts about the basic techniques.