Novel use of an arterial cardiopulmonary bypass cannula as a tracheal tube.

sophisticated SimMan simulator in a course on the treatment of medical emergencies. We do not agree that PowerPoint lectures are in general 'not entertaining'. However, for teaching of drug effects we did set up the new course concept using a simulator because we wanted to implement interactive training. Morgan showed that students significantly rated simulator training as a 'Valuable Learning Experience' compared with students who had been taught using a videotape on the same learning content. 4 The authors are indeed enthusiastic teachers. As the teachers in both groups were the same two people there should be no bias in the intervention. When reforming medical education at our university all new courses had been set up by interdisciplinary faculty. We thought it would be inappropriate to go back one step. As Brown mentioned and we had already stated in our article, unfortunately there was no third non-interdisciplinary group. The statement of Brown and Kessell that simulators are expensive is too general. We agree that one has to calculate the initial cost, maintenance and personnel costs. Simulators in the field of medicine are available from e200 000. The low-fidelity simulator we used in our course cost <e7000 and is now 7 years old. Maintenance of the simulator cost <e1000 during this period. The simulator can be run by one of the two teachers in the described course. As an advanced life support simulator is probably available at any medical school, the use of the simulator would not produce significant additional costs compared with the training without simulator. 1 Mueller MP, Christ T, Dobrev D, et al. Teaching antiarrhythmic therapy and ECG in simulator-based interdisciplinary undergraduate medical education. Retention of basic life support skills 6 months after training with an automated voice advisory manikin system without instructor involvement. Resuscitation 2002; 52: 273–9 3 Weller JM. Simulation in undergraduate medical education: bridging the gap between theory and practice. technology: a comparison of experiential and visual learning for undergraduate medical students. Anesthesiology 2002; 96: 10–16 5 Curran VR, Aziz K. Evaluation of the effect of a computerised training simulator (ANAKIN) on the retention of neonatal resuscitation skills. knowledge retention of third-year medical students taught with an innovative pharmacology program. Novel use of an arterial cardiopulmonary bypass cannula as a tracheal tube Editor—An 8-month-old, 5.66 kg patient with tracheal ste-nosis was scheduled for an urgent cartilage patch …