Eye Movement Modeling Examples as a Teaching Tool for Epidural Block

Introduction: Video examples with task demonstrations by experts, with the expert’s eye movements superimposed on the task, are known as “eye movement modeling examples” (EMME). We performed this study to evaluate if there were improvements in the performance of anesthesia novice trainees when executing the epidural technique after an EMME of epidural block procedure. Methods: We developed an eye movement modeling example (EMME) from eye tracking recordings made by experienced anesthesiologists with more than 20 years of experience. Forty-two PGY3 anesthesia trainees who had never previously performed an epidural block were randomized to receive (study group) or not receive (control group) the EMME video before their institutional training. All the trainees were evaluated every 10 epidural blocks until the end of the rotation period, by an independent, blinded observer using the Global Rating Scale for Epidural Anesthesia (GRS). Results: Trainees who received the EMME training exhibited more respect for the patient’s tissues (P Discussion: This is the first study that has used the EMME for a practical, clinical teaching purpose on real patients and that has used it as an aid in teaching epidural anesthesia. We demonstrated that inexperienced trainees who received the EMME training improved their proficiency at epidural blocks as compared to those who had no EMME training beforehand. Given this result, we welcome further studies to investigate the impact and the role of EMME on clinical teaching in the field of anesthesia.

Using the traditional model to evaluate the active force of the human lateral rectus muscle

The information on the force of extraocular muscles(EOMs)is beneficial for strabismus diagnosis and surgical planning,and a direct and simple method is important for surgeons to obtain these forces.Based on the traditional model,a numerical simulation method was proposed to achieve this aim,and then the active force of the lateral rectus(LR)muscle was successfully simulated when the eye rotated every angle from 0°to 30°in the horizontal plane from the nasal to the temporal side.In order to verify these simulations,the results were compared with the previous experimental data.The comparison shows that the simulation results diverged much more than the experimental data in the range of 0°–10°.The errors were corrected to make the simulation results closer to the experimental data.Finally,a general empirical equation was proposed to evaluate the active force of the LR muscle by fitting these data,which represent the relationship between the simulation forces and the contractive amounts of the LR muscle.