Cross-Suturing is Effective for Teaching Suturing Skills: A Randomized, Controlled Trial.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Skills Training
• Art in Medicine

Background:

• Basic suturing is a fundamental skill for graduating medical students.
• Current methods for improving suturing competency may be enhanced through innovative approaches.
• Integrating artistic techniques into surgical training is a novel concept.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a novel
• cross-suturing
• intervention in improving medical students' suturing performance.
• To compare the impact of art-based cross-stitching with conventional suturing methods.
• To assess the retention of suturing skills after the intervention.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial was conducted with preclinical medical students.
• Participants were divided into an intervention group (cross-suturing) and a control group (conventional suturing).
• Suturing performance was assessed using the American College of Surgeons basic suturing and knot tying performance rating tool, with blinded expert raters.

Main Results:

• The cross-suturing intervention group demonstrated significant improvements in both self-assessed proficiency and objective suturing performance compared to the control group.
• Objective performance scores increased from a median of 16.5 to 25.25 (P < 0.01) in the intervention group.
• Skills were retained at a 2-week follow-up, with no significant decrease in self-assessment or objective performance scores.

Conclusions:

• The cross-suturing intervention effectively enhanced suturing skills among medical students.
• This art-integrated approach offers a low-cost, scalable method for surgical education.
• Further large-scale studies are recommended to explore this innovative educational strategy.