Improving Resident Performance in Oculoplastic Surgery: A New Curriculum Using Surgical Wet Laboratory Videos

To develop a new oculoplastic curriculum that incorporates learning theory of skill acquisition. To develop and evaluate the effectiveness of instructional videos for an oculoplastic surgical wet laboratory.

Proof of concept, randomized controlled trial.

New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai-tertiary care academic institution.

In total, 16 ophthalmology residents were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups and given either video and text or text instructions alone for the following 2 procedures: blepharoplasty and eyelid laceration repair. Operating time and esthetic result were measured, and the groups were statistically compared. A brief survey was administered.

We developed a new 6 component oculoplastics curriculum that incorporates concepts of the Fitts and Posner skill acquisition model and mental imagery. In the wet laboratory pilot study, the group that watched the video of the laceration repair showed better esthetic grades than the group that received text alone (p = 0.038). This difference was not found for the blepharoplasty (p = 0.492). There was no difference between groups in operating time for the laceration repair (p = 0.722), but the group that watched the blepharoplasty video required more time to complete the task than those that reviewed text only (p = 0.023). In total, 100% of residents reported the videos augmented their learning.

Methods to optimize surgical education are important given limited operating room time in oculoplastics, a subspecialty in which the number of surgeries performed during residency is relatively low. We developed a curriculum based on learning theory and sought to formally test one important aspect, surgical video for wet laboratories. Our pilot study, despite its limitations, showed that wet laboratory surgical videos can be effective tools in improving motor skill acquisition for oculoplastic surgery.