Computer animation in teaching surgical procedures

Abstract

Animation is a developing and interesting visual communication instrument. It may have multipurpose functions such as entertainment, advertisement and education. The aim of this paper is to investigate the use of animation in teaching theoretical medical information and especially surgical procedures. Three, animations were planned and created about endonasal surgery focused on procedures which are known as difficult to understand. Then a group of 20 medical students were taught with this animation whereas a second group of 20 students were taught by theoretical information and plain figures. Different evaluation questions were asked in order to clarify the benefit of the animations in teaming. Then the second group was taught again by using the animations. It is concluded that animation is a very useful tool to teach difficult procedures in medicine especially in teaching complex topics.