An inexpensive cardiac bypass cannulation simulator: facing challenges of modern training.

The importance of surgical simulation has grown in the quickly changing climate of modern surgical training. As the expectation of basic skills acquisition has shifted to forums outside the operating room, residency programs have struggled to provide realistic teaching simulations for their trainees. We have developed and tested a realistic and low-cost porcine cannulation model. This model provided a platform for both technical and cognitive skills acquisition at the first session of the cardiothoracic or "CT Surgery Boot Camp" during the summer of 2008.