Study objective: To test the hypothesis that a virtual reality (VR) airway simulator (the AccuTouch Virtual Reality Bronchsocopy Simulator; Immersion Medical, Gaithersburg, MD) can be used to teach residents basic fiberoptic intubation (FOI) skills effectively.
Design: Observational study.
Setting: University anesthesiology department.
Intervention: Supervised training was done using a VR airway simulator.
Measurements: Time to intubation before and after a 4-day training period using an adult VR FOI scenario and time to intubation using a fresh human cadaver two weeks after the training experience were measured.
Main results: Residents were able to significantly improve time to intubation in the VR scenario (114 vs 75 seconds; P = 0.001). Novices differed from experienced attending anesthesiologists in time to intubation in the VR scenario, before but not after training (114 vs 79 seconds compared with 75 vs 72 seconds). Novices who had been trained with the simulator performed significantly faster in the cadaver than novices who had not (24 vs 86 seconds; P < 0.001). Furthermore, there was no difference in time to intubation in the cadaver between trained novices and experienced attending anesthesiologists (24 vs 23 seconds; P > 0.05).
Conclusion: Use of a VR airway simulator enables anesthesia residents to acquire basic FOI skills comparable to those of experienced anesthesiologists in a human cadaver.