Potential role of the advanced surgical skills for exposure in trauma (ASSET) Course in Canada

Recently, there has been a significant decrease in open operative experience for trainees and surgeons treating trauma.1,2 Success of nonoperative management of trauma,3,4 improvement in diagnostic accuracy through advances in technology, and the ability to stabilize patients thus allowing detailed, accurate investigations before operative decisions have all contributed to this decline in operative experience. The development of surgical skills centers using live animal and mechanical models5"7 is among the approaches to address this deficiency in surgical training. Human cadaver models specially prepared to preserve close to normal tissue consistency are desirable for practicing and learning surgical exposure techniques. The Advanced Surgical Skills for Exposure in Trauma (ASSET) course uses one such model. The first course using this fresh frozen human cadaver model was held in Bethesda, Maryland, in March 2008, following which a course manual was developed in March 2010. Since then, more than 30 courses, with more than 200 participants, have been conducted. All these courses have been successfully conducted in centers throughout the United States. We conducted a pilot course at the University of Toronto Surgical Skills Centre at Toronto's Mt. Sinai Hospital by inviting 12 trained trauma surgeons from different parts of Canada to participate to assess the feasibility and desirability of conducting the course in Canada.