Development and Validation of a High-Fidelity Neonatal Pneumothorax Simulator

Neonatal pneumothorax is a clinical emergency procedure that - if not solved within minutes - can lead to major clinical complications, including death. For this reason, advanced management skills are required. High-fidelity simulation represents a valuable training tool for residents that allows to gain experience and confidence thus preserving patient safety. Nevertheless, systems now available on the market and literature prototypes provide poor anatomical and physiological features, thus limiting the realism of the simulation and the training. With the aim to overcome these limitations and allow the training of all aspects of the clinical procedure, an innovative high-fidelity neonatal pneumothorax simulator was realized by exploiting two airtight pressurized chambers coupled together with self-sealing needle insertion areas. The simulator assessment phase was carried out involving both expert neonatologists and residents. Before and after the clinical procedure, surveys were used for collecting subjective evaluations. Finally, procedural time was recorded. Based on the obtained results, neonatologists considered the simulator a valid teaching and retraining tool. Moreover, thanks to a simple setting and the possibility to provide real-time feedback, the simulator proved to be a valid tool for training also in critical conditions of personal distancing, e.g., Covid-19 pandemic, which often requires remote operation.