[Ultrasound-guided puncture : an inexpensive and effective learning model]

Ultrasound is present in almost any practice and hospital clinic today. In clinical practice, puncture of structures, injections of local anesthetics or glucocorticoids are frequently performed. However, unguided puncture into tissue may have deleterious side-effects if the target is not reached or the drug is not injected properly, such as bleeding, traumatization of delicate structures, glucocorticoid-induced tendon rupture and skin necrosis. Coordination of eye, probe and the manipulation hand needs practice before being used on patients.Therefore, we developed an inexpensive, easy to make and effective learning model for ultrasound-guided puncture and injections. We describe how the model is made and how it can be used to efficiently enhance learning success. It was found that a person unskilled in ultrasonography needs about 40-60 coached punctures in order to confidently hit the target.This model has already been used in our medical education program for rheumatologists, internists, surgeons, orthopedic specialists, anesthetists and general practitioners with great success.