An endoscopic Ear Trainer for the low-resource setting

Endoscopic ear surgery is a technique that is growing in popularity. It has potential advantages in the low-resource setting for teaching and training, for the relative ease of transporting and storing the surgical equipment and for telemedicine roles. There may also be advantages to the patient, with reduced post-operative pain, facilitating the ability to complete procedures as out-patients.

Our Ear Trainer has previously been validated for headlight and microscope otology skills, including foreign body removal and ventilation tube insertion, in both the high- and low-resource setting. This study aimed to assess the Ear Trainer for similar training and assessment of endoscopic ear surgery skills in the low-resource setting. The study was conducted in Uganda on ENT trainees.

Despite a lack of prior experience with endoscopes, with limited practice time most participants showed improvements in: efficiency of instrument movement, steadiness of the camera view obtained, overall global rating of the task and performance time (faster task performance).

These results indicate that the Ear Trainer is a useful tool in the training and assessment of endoscopic ear surgery skills.