Intraoperative Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery Training: Efficient Teaching Techniques—A New Method

INTRODUCTION: Functional endoscopic sinus surgery is a complex procedure used by otorhinolaryngologists to treat a host of nasal sinus pathologies. Due to the involved nasal anatomy and the nature of the procedure, teaching residents to use an endoscope is challenging. Simulation labs have been helpful but intraoperative instruction can still present difficulty in communication between resident and attending physicians during the teaching process. The purpose of this is to hypothesize a method of teaching intraoperatively that can be used supplemental to or independently of virtual reality teaching. METHOD: Literature review to determine current intraoperative verbal teaching methods used by surgeons was performed. Review was also performed on the effects of simulation techniques in preparing residents for the operating room. Although this was not a systematic review including statistical analysis, a gap was found in the literature on how residents can be efficiently taught intraoperatively to navigate an endoscope while maintaining patient safety. A novel and inexpensive method has been devised as a possible teaching method. CONCLUSIONS: Extensive literature is not available in intraoperative teaching techniques. It is therefore uncertain whether such a method has been used before. Further study, possibly in the form of surveys and intraoperative trials, must be done to determine the effectiveness of this mechanism.