Artificial ear: A training tool for grommet insertion and manual dexterity.

Under European Working Time Directives, surgical trainees now have to attempt to gain adequate operative experience within newly-restricted working hours. Surgical skills training must therefore increasingly occur outside theatre and away from real patients, in a simulated environment. In ENT, we suggest that instruction and practice of grommet insertion may be greatly facilitated through the use of an artificial ear model, which can be assembled cheaply and quickly. Our 'ear' may also be used for manual dexterity exercises, which have the potential to be developed into validated tests of core ENT surgical skills in the future.