The Development of a Benchtop Breast Reconstruction Surgical Simulator

A modified Delphi technique was used to survey plastics surgeons with an expertise in breast reconstruction from 6 university centers with plastic surgery residency programs across Canada. A list of the most challenging steps in teaching alloplastic breast reconstruction was obtained. From the survey results, a benchtop post-mastectomy breast reconstruction simulator was created using various silicon materials. The simulator was designed to be completely reusable with no disposable components necessary for each use. Senior plastic surgeons (n= 6) with an expertise in breast reconstruction were recruited and asked to perform a sub-pectoral, implant-based breast reconstruction on the simulator. Following the procedure, participants were asked to complete a survey and grade the simulator on its physical attributes, realism of experience, realism of material and overall experience.Preliminary face and content validation results based on the evaluations performed by those expert plastic surgeons showed excellent results among parameters evaluated, with an overall mean score of 4.7 on 5 (94.0%). Evaluators considered the six relevant anatomical components that were successfully included in the simulator.