An Inexpensive Esophageal Balloon Tamponade Trainer

Abstract

Background: Emergency medicine practitioners must be able to perform rare, life-saving procedures. One such example is esophageal balloon tamponade, which is complex, fraught with complications, and difficult to demonstrate and practice.

Discussion: We constructed a simple, inexpensive model esophagus and stomach that we attached to a mannequin, allowing emergency medicine residents to visualize and practice esophageal balloon tamponade device placement.

Conclusion: Our esophageal balloon tamponade model was easy to construct and allowed demonstration, conceptual visualization, and simulated performance of the procedure.

Keywords: esophageal balloon tamponade; esophageal varices; medical education; simulation.