The Usefulness of Cadaveric Hands-on Workshop for Surgical Training in Head and Neck Surgeries

Surgical approach to head and neck region requires in depth anatomical knowledge and refined surgical skills due to highly critical and complex anatomy of this region.

To look for the benefit of cadaveric hands-on workshop on enhancing the surgical knowledge and confidence of the participants. Freshly frozen cadavers were used for this hands-on course in the department of Anatomy, AIIMS Raipur involving 32 residents and ENT specialists. This course involved the interactive lectures and live surgical demonstration on issues related to neck dissection, thyroid, and parotid surgery followed by a hands-on practice by the residents. A positive feedback was given by the participants in regards to the cadaveric hands-on workshop. Almost 4/5th of the participants found the present experience to be extremely helpful and all of them believed the cadaveric hands-on workshops should be conducted regularly as a learning tool and enhancement of surgical skills. Cadaveric hands-on dissection is a very effective practice for refining surgical skills. It can be used to study basic surgical procedures or extremely complex surgeries having intricate anatomy.