The use of cyanoacrylate glue for skin grafts stabilisation: A retrospective multicenter study.

Cyanoacrylate (CA) tissue glue is frequently used in various surgical procedures, and it is simple to use and may save time during procedures. We report the use, effectiveness, and postoperative outcomes of patients who have undergone skin graft surgeries in which CA glue was used to stabilise the graft. A retrospective study of patients who underwent skin graft surgeries where CA was used to stabilise the grafts between January 2018 and August 2021 at different medical institutes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Science, version 23.0 (IBM, Armonk, New York). A total of 36 cases were included. Five patients (13.9%) had diabetes. All cases received antibiotics preoperatively. Two types of harvested skin grafts were used: (a) a non-meshed split-thickness skin graft (n = 24, 66.7%), and (b) a meshed split-thickness skin graft (n = 12, 33.3%). The graft uptake outcome was 100% for 32 patients (88.9%). The most common underlying indication of skin grafting was burn 17 (47.2%), in which 5 (13.9%) developed partial graft loss. The percentage of skin grafts taken using CA was high and comparable to other fixation methods. Further studies may be needed to assess the long-term outcomes and cost-effectiveness.

Students' Perception of Peer- Students Mentoring Program "Big Sibling Mentoring Program" to Complement Faculty Mentoring of First-Year Medical Students in Saudi Arabia.

Background: The Big Sibling Program is an innovative peer student mentoring method that was designed and implemented by the students' council in 2021 to complement the faculty mentoring program of first-year medical students in the College of Medicine, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. The aim of the study was to evaluate the medical students' perception of the peer students "Big Sibling" mentoring program and to assess the effectiveness of the program in terms of changes in the behavior and academic performance of the students. Methods: This is a retrospective study that was conducted in 2021. A registration form that includes demographic data, personal information, and academic performance (GPA and extracurricular achievements) was sent to all second- and third-year medical students to select the Big Siblings. A total of 49 mentors "Big Siblings" were accepted (30 males, 19 females) and matched randomly with the little siblings from first-year medical students. A written consent was obtained from the participants. The survey was structured on a 5-point Likert scale, and composed of four sections of closed-ended questions, that includes: the demographic data, the students' (little sibling) evaluation of the mentorship sessions, the little sibling perception of the Big Sibling Program and its effectiveness of the Big Sibling Program in terms of behavioral or quality effects. Results: Out of 297 first-year medical students, 284 (95.62%) responded. The majority significantly agreed that the Big Sibling was readily available and they personally benefitted from the relationship (94.36%, p<0.001; 90.14%, p<0.001). They significantly disagreed that the relationship requires too much time (72.54%, p<0.001) or that they do not need a mentor (78.87%, p<0.001). Most significantly agreed that mentoring is a good idea (94.37%, p<0.001), the program helped reduce their stress (84.51%, p<0.001), helped them adjust to college (89.44%, p<0.001), and advance academically (78.52%, p<0.001). The program also encouraged their involvement in extracurricular activities (58.10%, p<0.0001), research (43.31%, p<0.001), and social engagement with peers (71.48%, p<0.001). Moreover, the majority thought the program significantly improved their self-confidence (73.94%, p<0.001), self-awareness (84.51%), accountability (54.51%), leadership (54.93%), resilience (71.13%), punctuality (69.01%, p<0.001), time management (75.70%), stress coping (77.82%), problem-solving (76.76%), and teamwork (75.35%). Conclusion: Peer students' big Siblings program has succeeded in reducing first-year medical students stress levels, improving their self-confidence, self-awareness, accountability and responsibility, leadership, resilience, punctuality and engaging them in research and extracurricular activities.

Evaluation of the Experience of Peer-led Mock Objective Structured Practical Examination for First- and Second-year Medical Students.

Background: The objective structured practical examination (OSPE) is used as an assessment tool of laboratory practical sessions. This study described the design and implementation of peer-led mock OSPE for first- and second-year medical students, investigated the perception of the students of the peer-led mock OSPE and the impact of attending the mock OSPE on the performance. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. Two mock OSPEs were designed and conducted by third-, fourth- and fifth- year medical students for year one and two. Each mock OSPE involved six stations. Thirty-three medical students facilitated the OSPE. The OSPEs were conducted prior to the summative end of block exams. Following the mock OSPEs, an online survey was sent to the participants to assess their satisfaction, quality and benefits of the mock OSPE. The study also evaluated the impact of the mock OSPE on students' performance. Results: Out of 313 first-year students, 279 (89.1%) attended the mock OSPE and out of 298 second-year students, 213 (71.5%) attended. A total of 192 (68.8%) first-year medical students and 102 (47.9%) second-year medical students completed the questionnaire. There was no significant difference between attending and non-attending the mock OSPE in the students' performance in the summative OSPE. The majority of students felt more confident, less anxious, and lowered the levels of stress after attending the mock OSPE. More than half of the students felt that attending the mock OSPE helped in easing the steps, better preparation, provided sufficient orientation, well explained the materials and helped them to learn the concept of the final OSPE. The majority of students found the mock OSPE stimulating. Conclusion: Attending the mock OSPE did not affect the students' performance in the summative OSPE. However, the peer-assessed mock OSPE improved the medical students' confidence and lowered the anxiety associated with OSPE.