Neurosurgical Service, Harvard Medical School, Beth Isreal Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Department of Neurosurgery, Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, Burlington, Massachusetts, USA.
World Neurosurg. 2024 Oct;190:e394-e402. doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2024.07.146. Epub 2024 Jul 26.
As endovascular neurosurgery techniques continue to evolve, medical students in the United States have widely varying exposures to the field, particularly with respect to opportunities for hands-on experiences. Current medical school curricula could benefit from a novel and adaptive course on vascular neurosurgery to increase student exposure earlier in their training.
We launched a yearly hands-on vascular neurosurgery course for medical students and residents. The day-long course is a combination of lectures focused on neurovascular disease and management accompanied by hands-on sessions where students practiced fundamental microsurgery and angiography techniques using real microscopes and angiography simulators. We surveyed the students before and after each of the 2 courses. The survey following the second annual course included quiz questions the students had not previously seen.
Over 2 courses, we had 149 attendees, 71.8% of which were first and second-year medical students representing fifteen institutions. The average survey completion rate was 41.4% for the 4 surveys across the 2 courses. Attendees' interest in pursuing a surgical specialty (t = 1.815, P = 0.039) along with their comfort with neuroanatomy (t = 8.780, P ≤ 0.001) and neurosurgical disease (t = 6.133, P ≤ 0.001) was significantly elevated after the completion of the second course. Responses to the post-survey showed a good grasp of the fundamentals with 68% of attendees answering 70% of the quiz questions correctly.
An interactive course on vascular neurosurgery may be an effective vehicle to provide medical students with exposure to the field and the opportunity to learn the fundamentals.
随着血管内神经外科学技术的不断发展，美国的医学生对该领域的接触程度差异很大，尤其是在实践经验方面。当前的医学院课程可以受益于一门新颖且适应性强的血管神经外科学课程，以便在学生培训的早期阶段增加学生的接触。
我们为医学生和住院医师开设了一门年度实践血管神经外科学课程。为期一天的课程结合了专注于神经血管疾病和管理的讲座，以及实践课程，学生可以使用真实显微镜和血管造影模拟器练习基本的显微外科和血管造影技术。我们在每两期课程前后都对学生进行了调查。第二期课程后的调查包括学生以前未见过的测验问题。
在两期课程中，我们有 149 名参与者，其中 71.8%是来自十五个机构的一年级和二年级医学生。在两期课程的 4 次调查中，平均调查完成率为 41.4%。参与者对从事外科专业的兴趣（t=1.815，P=0.039）以及对神经解剖学（t=8.780，P≤0.001）和神经外科疾病（t=6.133，P≤0.001）的舒适度在完成第二期课程后显著提高。对课后调查的回应表明，他们很好地掌握了基础知识，有 68%的参与者正确回答了 70%的测验问题。
血管神经外科学的互动课程可能是为医学生提供接触该领域并学习基础知识的有效途径。
