From the Hansjörg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery, New York University Langone Health.
Plast Reconstr Surg. 2021 Aug 1;148(2):419-426. doi: 10.1097/PRS.0000000000008166.
Facial transplantation is a complex surgical procedure that requires education of medical professionals, patients, and the general public. The objective of this randomized controlled trial was to compare the educational efficacy of facial transplantation digital animation versus text resources for teaching medical students a complex surgical procedure and its applicable anatomical and surgical principles.
Medical student volunteers were recruited and prospectively randomized to an animation or a text group. Students completed preintervention and postintervention assessments of confidence and knowledge of head and neck anatomy and facial transplantation. Student Evaluations of Educational Quality survey assessed student satisfaction with both tools following study crossover. Knowledge assessment was developed using National Board of Medical Examiners guidelines and content validated by four experts. The Cohen d statistic was used to measure the effect size of each intervention.
Thirty-six students were assigned randomly to the animation group (n = 19) or the text (n = 17) group. Postintervention analysis demonstrated significantly higher performance scores in the animation group compared to the text group (p = 0.029). The animation group had a larger effect size (Cohen d = 1.96 versus 1.27). Only students in the animation group reported significantly improved confidence in head and neck anatomy after the intervention (p = 0.002). Both groups demonstrated significantly increased postintervention confidence in knowledge of facial transplantation (p < 0.001). Satisfaction scores revealed that students significantly favored the animation resource (p < 0.001).
Animation can be an effective tool for facial transplantation education and results in improved student knowledge, confidence, and satisfaction compared to text resources. Facial transplantation can also be used as an educational framework for teaching medical students anatomical and surgical principles.
面部移植是一项复杂的外科手术，需要对医学专业人员、患者和公众进行教育。本随机对照试验的目的是比较面部移植数字动画与文本资源在教授医学生复杂手术及其适用解剖学和手术原理方面的教育效果。
招募医学专业学生志愿者，并前瞻性随机分为动画组或文本组。学生完成头颈部解剖学和面部移植知识的预干预和后干预评估。学生对教育质量的评价调查评估了学生在研究交叉后对这两种工具的满意度。知识评估采用美国国家医师考试委员会的指南制定，并由四位专家进行内容验证。采用 Cohen d 统计量来衡量每个干预的效果大小。
36 名学生被随机分配到动画组（n = 19）或文本组（n = 17）。后干预分析表明，与文本组相比，动画组的表现得分显著更高（p = 0.029）。动画组的效果量更大（Cohen d = 1.96 与 1.27）。只有动画组的学生报告干预后对头颈部解剖学的信心显著提高（p = 0.002）。两组学生对面部移植知识的信心均显著增强（p < 0.001）。满意度评分表明，学生明显更喜欢动画资源（p < 0.001）。
与文本资源相比，动画可以成为面部移植教育的有效工具，可提高学生的知识、信心和满意度。面部移植也可用于教授医学生解剖学和手术原理的教学框架。
