Avelina Sotres Vega
National Institute of Respiratory Diseases, Mexico
Title: Biomaterials as a tool for teaching and learning training programs on surgery
Biography
Biography: Avelina Sotres Vega
Abstract
Statement of the Problem: Developing surgical skills is essential in the training of all surgical specialties. However ethical, legal and economic issues have limited surgical training. As surgical educators, we are always trying to identify new ways to provide skills training. We have developed training programs to teach surgical skills to junior surgeons from human and veterinary medicine based on laboratory animals using preserved tissues and organs as surgical training biomaterials. The goal is to help the trainees acquire the abilities and dexterity necessary to perform surgery on patients.
Methodology: We created a small bank of cryopreserved tracheas and stomachs harvested from Wistar rats as well as cryopreserved tracheas and lyophilized esophagus that were harvested from dogs. All animals were previously used in research studies. Stomachs, tracheas and esophagus were cleansed with saline solution, after this, tracheas and esophagus were mounted on polypropylene tubes. In the stomachs, the pyloric antrum was tied with silk 1-0, stomachs were filled with hyaluronic acid solution and the distal esophagus was tied too. Tracheas and esophagus were trimmed in segments of 5 cm. Cryopreservation of tracheas and stomachs was made with a controlled-rate freezer (-1ºC/min) and stored at -30ºC for 30 to 60 days. All the esophagus were lyophilized at -55ºC and 10 mBar of vacuum pressure during 24 hours and sterilized with low temperature hydrogen peroxide gas plasma process. On the day of the surgical skills practice, the cryopreserved organs were thawed at room temperature and all the esophagus were rehydrated with saline solution at 4ºC. Each preserved organ was used to perform end-to-end anastomosis with 4-0 running polypropilene or single stitches. Preserved organs are inexpensive, practical, portable bench models and have high-fidelity that improve the tactile perception and facilitate surgical skills learning by improving how trainees handle tissue and surgical instruments.
Recent Publications:
1. Sotres-Vega A, Villalba-Caloca J, Azrad-Daniel S, García-Montes JA, Torre-Jaime JL, Guadarrama-Sánchez I, Pérez-Covarrubias D, Santibañez-Salgado JA (2016). Surgical Skills Training with Cryopreserved Rat Stomachs. Journal Veterinary Medical Education 43(4):420-426.
2. Giraldo-Gomez DM, Leon-Mancilla B, Del Prado-Audelo ML, Sotres-Vega A, Villalba-Caloca J, Garciadiego-Cazares D, Piña-Barba MC (2016). Trypsin as enhancement in cyclical tracheal decellularization: Morphological and biophysical characterization. Materials Science & Engineering. C, Materials for Biological Applications (2016) 59:930-7. doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2015.10.094.
3. J. Pineda-Gutiérrez, A. Sotres-Vega, J. Villalba-Caloca, M. Alonso-Gómez, S. Aja-Guardiola, J. García-Jarquín, S. Martínez-Fonseca, J. Salas-Hernández (2016). Preservation of cardiopulmonary blocks: A real and interactive biomaterial for teaching and learning lung plethysmography and mechanical ventilation. International Journal of Engineering Research & Science (IJOER) 2(4):162-166.
4. Olmos-Zúñiga JR, Jasso-Victoria R, Díaz-Martínez NE, Gaxiola-Gaxiola MO, Sotres-Vega A, Heras-Romero Y, Baltazares-Lipp M, Baltazares-Lipp ME, Santillán-Doherty P, Hernández-Jiménez C (2016). Lyophilized allografts without pre-treatment with glutaraldehyde are more suitable than cryopreserved allografts for pulmonary artery reconstruction. The Brazilian of Medical and Biological Research 49(2):e5001. doi: 10.1590/1414-431X20155001.
5. Sotres-Vega A, Osorio-Necoechea ME, Salas-Galindo G, González-Ramón SC, Guadarrama-Sánchez I, Villalba-Caloca J, Santibáñez-Salgado JA (2013). Bench surgical training with lyophilized esophageal segments. Acta Cirurgica Brasileira 28(8):619-23.