August 19, 2013By Lance Baily

Simulab TraumaMan Surgical Abdomen In-Situ Video @ LSU Health

surgical abdomen simulab

traumaman surgical abdomen

Continuing our video series on Simulab, this week we take a closer look at the TraumaMan in action with the newly released Surgical Abdomen system. We recently spent an afternoon with Dr. John Paige’s on-call surgical team while they did a mock trauma multiple stab-wound scenario in-situ in Operating Room 8 at LSU’s Interim Hospital in New Orleans. Watch this amazing video that takes you right into the TraumaMan abdomen of a high-stakes surgical training event:


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John Paige, MD Associate Professor Clinical Surgery at LSU Health School of Medicine Department of Surgery, and Director of the American College of Surgeons Credit Institute Learning Center directs inter-professional education and team training utilizing high-fidelity manikins and Simulab products. Dr. Paige was apart of an AHRQ training grant from 2006-2008 where his team provided in-situ team training around Louisiana which helped develop the educational model we witnessed them still using now.

surgical training abdomen

“What we are doing here today is an in-situ simulation which brings the staff together from circulating nurses to scrub techs, nurse anesthesiologists, and surgeons to work together on team-work – which I think is a universal thing we can always continue to improve on. As well this training makes us more highly reliable and also helps to break down barriers and flatten hierarchy, which is what we like to preach.” John briefs the team about the scenario background: “The goal of this to talk about team-work skills and to work together. This is an older guy who was stabbed twice in the belly right at the Umbilicus. He was brought to room four where got 2 liters of fluid because he was hypotensive. He was initially resuscitated but now he has starting to go back down, and Dr. Mar has asked Fabien here to Xlap the patient”.


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While the team preps, John talks to us about why Simulab is so helpful for this type of high-stakes team training: “What’s really great about the Simulab product is that you can do the tasks of the procedures, ie you can cut and you can put in a chest-tube much more easily. TraumaMan is useful for team-training because you are bringing the whole team in and you’re doing the actual procedure. For example we’re bringing in the post-graduate 2nd year residents and 3rd residents over at the center, alongside anesthesiologist residents as a way to get them some experience leading an x-lap, because while they get some real experience, they are not always the ones who get to be in charge. This is kind of their sign out, their final thing, this is the situational thing. And because you are training so many individuals, you are distributing the cost, and so its very reasonable because of that.

The team, lead by a 3rd year resident Fabien Grey, opens the patient’s abdomen to discover “a belly quite full of blood”. After suctioning for some time, she discovers there is an aortic injury right at the bifurcation. Communicating with her anesthesiologist, her assistant clamps the aorta, and then goes to work suturing the lacerated area. The level of realism of the Simulab TraumaMan product brings the tension way up as the surgeons must actually complete the procedure while working and communicating with the whole team. After the scenario concludes and before debriefing, the team remarks that the new TraumaMan Surgical Abdomen “felt real” and “mimics real trauma, almost to a T”.

Shortly afterwords, John’ simulation staff reset the scene with a second patient, still utilizing the same TraumaMan trainer. This time, however, the tasks necessary were a chest needle decompression and chest tube insertion. The level of realism is uncanny with the Simulab product, as when the needle is pulled a rush of air can be heard and the chest incision actually bled. Following this shorter scenario team participants shared that “this training was very worthwhile and also helped us build a lot more teamwork and cohesiveness as sometimes we only see the residents every few months, so it builds that teamwork and friendship because you have to be friends with the people you work with – especially when you are in close proximity when you are always are when working with a Trauma”.

LSU Health PGY3 Fabien Grey, who performed the surgery during the day’s training which utilized Simulab’s TraumaMan Surgical Abdomen said this about the training: “You know I’m a surgeon and I use my hands. When I start using my hands on the procedure my brain goes in a different way, which puts me in that frame of mind where it makes everything a lot more real”.

To learn more, visit the TraumaMan page on Simulab’s website and stay tuned for our next video covering all the features of this high-fidelity learning product!


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