Developed in conjunction with the Royal College of Surgeons

Introduction

Our new range of skills training models has been designed specifically for the newly revised Royal College of Surgeons Intercollegiate Basic Surgical Skills Course.

They have been developed in close collaboration with Mr Rory McCloy and Mr Bill Thomas, Raven Department of Education, at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, who have been responsible for the development and delivery of the new course.

All new models have been successfully tried and tested during the College's pilot courses in London.

The challenge

The revised BSS course has more soft tissue content than before, which presents new challenges for the regional skills centres which run it.

Drawbacks of animal tissue

In the past, animal tissue has been used predominantly for this type of surgical training due to its similar characteristics to human tissue. However, there are a number downsides:

• Specialised storage facilities required
• Limited life once out of storage
• Preparation time
• Hygiene
• Restricted training environment
• Difficulty in standardising tissue samples
• Specific disposal requirements
• Ethical and religious considerations

Benefits of synthetic tissue

These issues have created a much stronger argument to move to synthetic alternatives which have a strong similarity with human tissue:

• No specialised storage requirements
• Long life once out of storage
• No preparation time for the training centre
• No hygiene issues
• Suitable for use in any training environment
• Synthetic tissue can be standardised via production process
• No specific disposal requirements
• No ethical or religious issues

The Limbs & Things BSS Training Package provides the best synthetic soft tissue alternative to animal tissue.

Products

The BSS Training Package splits into three parts to reflect the three day BSS course structure:

- Day 1 Kit
- Day 2 Kit
- Day 3 laparoscopic trainers

As well as the advantages of using synthetic soft tissue there are other benefits:

• Each Day Kit contains all the task trainers and consumables required for 1 trainee. Simply open the box, remove the task trainer and place it in front of the trainee. There is no preparation required.
• Once the Day Kits have been used Refill Packs can be ordered. Each Refill Pack contains all the consumable items that a trainee will need for that day. Each item can be quickly and easily attached to the task trainer with minimal preparation time.
• 2 types of laparoscopic trainer are suggested to offer maximum flexibility for your training environment.