Low-Fidelity Canthotomy Model Use in Resident Education: The Learner’s Perspective

Lateral canthotomy is a low incidence but high-risk procedure that is expected to be within the scope of practice for every emergency department physician. Due to the low incidence of this procedure, training residents may prove difficult and costly. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a synthetic, low-fidelity, low-cost, eye model to train and improve confidence in performing a lateral canthotomy. This is the first study that we know of that uses a 5 point Likert scale, two-sample t-test to assess the value of using such a model for lateral canthotomy training. Our results showed that using such a model for the training of lateral canthotomy did in fact improve the competence and confidence of performing this procedure.