Abstract
Ultrasound-guided central venous catheterization has been considered the gold standard practice in recent years because of its high success rate compared to the traditional anatomical landmark technique. However, lethal mechanical complications have been reported using the ultrasound-guided technique. Appropriate education is key to the clinical performance of ultrasound-guided central venous catheterization. Up to now, nobody has revealed an appropriate way to educate in this field.
Simulation education is clearly a solution to this question. This article reviews previous studies of simulation education in ultrasound-guided central venous catheterization around the world, and presents my trials for appropriate education in Japan.
The first step is to come up with an efficient way to educate young doctors. We need to change the goal of today’s standard not only focusing to higher success rate, but also preventing mechanical complications.
