FAKE BODY PARTS #1411
Television News Service/Medical Breakthroughs
©Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc. 1999

From tiny gall bladders to full-scale bones and ligaments, a Seattle company is making body parts to help make better doctors.

Dr. Mika Sinanan is finishing up some abdominal surgery, or more precisely, some fake abdominal surgery. The operating room for this procedure is a regular office, the body parts all manufactured -- some of the latest tools to train doctors for the real thing.

"We have built these simulators to try and build a bridge between reading about the procedure, hearing the procedure, seeing the procedure, before actually practicing the procedure," says Dr. Sinanan, a surgeon at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Dr. Sinanan says between 30 and 40 percent of all surgeries are done with smaller tools. That means smaller incisions and different hand and eye skills than traditional surgery. "Our goal with these simulators is to improve their skills to the point that they are both safe and efficient in the operating room," he says.

As this idea spreads, companies are turning out everything from torsos to stomachs to individual bones on request. While the cost per body part can run as high as several thousand dollars, doctors say it's often cheaper than relying on humans or animals for training -- and less controversial.

Dr. Sinanan hopes the use of simulators will shorten the time needed to train doctors. "It's pretty close to the real thing," he says. "It's actually more difficult than many of the real gall bladders are."

Dr. Sinanan says between 10 and 15 medical centers around the U.S. are using the surgical simulation devices to train doctors.