Development of a portable training tool for simulating visceral angiographic procedures for beginners

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of a tool that we developed to simulate performance of visceral angiography to train beginners in the field of splanchnic angiography. Seven residents and two fellows who were rotating within the Division of Interventional Radiology at our institution between June and August 2008 participated in the evaluation of this tool. They had no experience in performing visceral angiography as an operator. Time for selection of arterial branches arising from the celiac axis on the model was measured before and after training. After such training, the participants performed actual visceral angiography as an operator with instructors beside them. Success of the trainees in selecting visceral arterial branches was evaluated in these real-life cases. In the first test using the model, seven of nine trainees (77.8%) succeeded in selecting all required arteries, while the remaining two failed to select all required arteries. After training using the model, all trainees succeeded in selecting all required arteries just before the actual angiographic study. In the actual angiography, the catheter was successfully inserted from the femoral artery and advanced to the superior mesenteric, celiac, splenic, common hepatic, gastroduodenal, and right and left hepatic arteries by all trainees with only two exceptions. In conclusion, this tool is helpful for training beginners in visceral angiographic procedures.