%0 Journal Article
%T Is simulation the only keystone of surgical training?
%A Alberto Emiliano Baccarini
%A Claudio Andreetti
%A Leonardo Teodonio
%A Mohsen Ibrahim
%J SCIE-indexed Journal
%D 2019
%R 10.21037/jtd.2019.01.17
%X Gaba defines simulation as a ¡°technique, not a technology, to replace or amplify real experiences with guided experiences, often immersive in nature, that evoke or replicate substantial aspects of the real world in a fully interactive fashion¡± (1). Simulation is a burning issue in the field of surgery; its use is constantly growing up in wealthy countries where residents can improve their expertise without operating on humans (2). Most advanced surgical simulators involve the use of computers reproducing a virtual anatomy through a realistic 3D view, which requires a large investment to be produced and installed. Therefore, it¡¯s essential to cut the costs and increase the simulation in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) where it could be harnessed for good to make the society and the health care assistance better. In this article of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery published on June 2018, Ramirez and her colleagues from the University of Virginia present a sensational article approaching simulation in general thoracic surgery in LMICs such as Rwanda which is located in East Africa, with a population of 11,262,564, an estimated total GDP of 24.717 billion and a per-capita of $2,090 (3). This country has been classified as ¡°LMIC¡± based on the GDP per capita. The authors focused on few surgical procedures counted as the most crucial operations in Rwanda, such as thoracotomy positioning, performance of a thoracotomy, ruptured diaphragm repair, lung decortication, and oesophageal perforation repair. The epidemiology of diseases differs from high-income countries to LMICs. As a matter of fact, in the latter the main reasons for surgery are oncological diseases while in the former surgeries are mostly done to treat traumatic and infectious aetiologies. The procedures listed above represent the basis of thoracic surgery, the first step to be done in thoracic surgery training and are of fundamental importance in LMICs to improve the health care assistance and outcomes for patients. Simulation in surgery and more specifically in thoracic surgery, as mentioned above, is a pivotal part in the training (4) of young surgeons as it is essential to transfer skills and capabilities to less experienced physicians, to shorten their learning curve in an effective manner and to accelerate their way to master the skill of surgery. Despite the fact that simulation is well known and used in high-income countries the most useful benefits of it could be increasingly experienced in LMICs where it¡¯s easy to find several limitations related to the inconstancy of funds available
%U http://jtd.amegroups.com/article/view/26536/html