Affordable Low-Cost Home-Made Skull Model for Interactive Neurosurgical workshops: Experience with Hands-on Intracranial Pressure Monitoring at 2 International Neurosurgical Conferences

Abstract

Background: Undergraduate neurosurgery conferences are acknowledged to play an important role in bridging the gap between a limited exposure to neurosurgery within medical schools and a highly competitive application process. Hands-on workshops are attractive for any conference but can be prohibitively expensive, especially for student societies.

Methods: We describe our method to manufacture a low-cost skull model, which we used for a hands-on intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring workshop station at 2 international neurosurgical conferences. We describe the workflow for our ICP monitoring workshop using these models.

Results: Our model acts as an appropriate substitute for more professional simulators while adequately mimicking the sensation of skull drilling, dural puncture, and intraparenchymal ICP bolt and probe insertion. All tools and resources are accessible from local markets and can be sourced online. A total of GB£100 was spent making 5 skull models and took 2 hours to manufacture by 3 individuals. The ICP monitoring workshop was carried out 3 times over 40 minutes, with each session accommodating 18 or 19 delegates (N = 55).

Conclusions: These workshop models have been praised by medical students for increasing exposure and awareness toward neurosurgical procedures and the sophistication of investigations used by the specialty. Consultant neurosurgeons have praised the simulation provided by these models as closely mimicking the procedure in reality.

Keywords: Hands-on; Intracranial pressure monitoring; Low-cost; Neurosurgery; Undergraduate neuro conference; Workshop.