Abstract
Transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE) requires extensive hands-on training, and it is for this purpose we have designed EchoComTEE, a simulator for TOE. It consists of a manikin and dummy probe; according to the position of the dummy probe (tracked by an electromagnetic sensor), two-dimensional (2D) images are calculated from three-dimensional (3D) data sets.
Echo cardiographic images are presented side-by-side with a virtual scene consisting of a 3D heart, probe tip and image plane. In this way the trainee is provided with visual feed-back of the relationship between echocardiogram and image plane position.
We evaluated the simulator using a standardised questionnaire. Twenty-five experts and 31 novice users participated in the study.
Most experts graded the simulator as realistic and all recommended its use for training. Most novice users felt the simulator supported spatial orientation during TOE and, as anaesthetists often do not have training in transthoracic echo cardiography, in this group the TOE simulator might be particularly useful.