• Joy N Liang, Maeghan Ciampa, Fred Kobylarz, Andrew J Anklowitz, Natalia K Barzanji, William Sherman, and Byron Faler.
• General Surgery Residency Program, Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Fort Eisenhower, GA 30905, USA.
• Mil Med. 2024 Aug 22.

IntroductionReadiness of military health care providers is essential to maintain a prepared fighting force and remains a central issue for today's military. Maintaining skills regarding operative management of trauma is becoming more difficult if not located at an urban trauma center. Live tissue training may be used to practice skills in a facility that does not have exposure to high acuity trauma. The goal of our live tissue skills course is to train health care providers and ancillary staff in the management of various injury complexes and improve confidence and familiarity with management using a porcine model.Materials And MethodsA live tissue skills course using a porcine model was offered to surgical residents, attendings, and operating room technicians. Before completing the course, each participant completed a survey assessing comfort level, previous training experiences, and deployments. Operative management was simulated with a standardized sequence of abdominal and thoracic injuries. After the course, each participant then completed a survey assessing comfort level, benefit of the course, and comparison to inanimate simulation training. Survey information was obtained via participant completion of a multiple-choice confidential questionnaire.ResultsResponses were collected from 34 participants at our institution. Average abdominal trauma comfort increased from 2.79 to 3.73, with no participants reporting feeling not comfortable at all post-lab. Average thoracic trauma comfort increased from 2.47 to 3.48, with one participant reporting feeling not comfortable at all post-lab. Overall, 85% of participants reported the course to be very beneficial in improving their knowledge, 83% reported the course to be very beneficial compared to inanimate simulators, and 92% reported high fidelity of the live tissue training course.ConclusionsPerceived as highly beneficial, live tissue training increased comfort with operative trauma management by surgical residents, attendings, and technicians supporting continued utilization. Further evaluation of live tissue courses would be advantageous in assessing surgical skill improvement, including comparison with simulation training.© The Association of Military Surgeons of the United States 2024. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site–for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.

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