• Jeremy L C Smelt, Simon Phillips, Colin Hamilton, Paul Fricker, Dominic Spray, Justin L Nowell, and Marjan Jahangiri.
• Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, St. George's Hospital, London, United Kingdom.
• J Surg Educ. 2016 Nov 1; 73 (6): 1026-1031.

ObjectiveComplications of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) are rare, but life-threatening events that need prompt and rehearsed actions involving a team. This is not adequately taught to cardiothoracic surgical trainees. The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge of cardiothoracic trainees required to manage these events after simulation-based vs. lecture-based teaching.Participants And DesignTotally, 17 cardiac surgical trainees with no formal teaching in intraoperative complications of CPB management were randomly assigned by computer to either a study group receiving simulation-based complications of CPB teaching via the Orpheus simulator (n = 9) or a control group receiving complications of CPB teaching via a lecture (n = 8). Each subject undertook a written test comprising 20 multiple choice questions on complications of CPB before and after teaching. Trainees were then asked to rate their satisfaction with each session from 1 to 5, with 5 being most satisfied.SettingSt George Simulation and Clinical Skills Laboratory, St George's Hospital, London.ResultsThere was no significant difference in the pretest scores between the 2 groups (p = 0.29). After teaching, both groups showed a statistically significant improvement in their knowledge (p < 0.05). The trainees in the simulation group performed better than the lecture-based group; however, this was not statistically significant (p = 0.21). Satisfaction levels in both the lecture session and the simulation session were very high with means of 4.4/5 and 4.8/5, respectively.ConclusionDespite the familiarity with CPB during surgery, the simulation group performed at least as well as the lecture group. Cardiothoracic trainees would benefit from formal teaching of complications of CPB management via either learning modality being incorporated into their training.Copyright © 2016 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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