Introduction

Bowel ultrasound is a cost-effective, non-invasive, and readily available tool for the clinical management of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases. Moreover, it can be an accurate tool for the assessment of patients with chronic and acute gastrointestinal (GI) disorders (e.g., abdominal pain and diarrhoea) in order to rule in and out organic causes.
It is presently unknown how many GI residents have the opportunity of an ultrasound training period during their residency.

Aims & Methods

Aim of this study was to evaluate how a two-hour theoretical and hands-on learning course on bowel ultrasound has affected the ability of GI residents to correctly identify some basic physiological and pathological ultrasound findings.
The participants were GI residents from different Countries, who voluntarily chose to take part to the intestinal ultrasound course, one of twelve optional courses held during the two-day UEG Summer School in Prague in June 2022. The bowel ultrasound course, consisting of a 0.5-hour theoretical and a 1.5-hour hands-on part with bowel ultrasound performed on healthy volunteers ran eight times during the Summer School, with a maximal number of twelve participants per session.
Participants performed an initial test, consisting of answering ten questions contained in a digital anonymous questionnaire with Google Form (Google, Mountain View, USA) to recognize some basic anatomical structures and/or pathological ultrasound images of the enteric system. At the end of the two-hour course, participants completed a final test with the same initial questions and images.
Answers to each single question before and after the course were compared, by calculating the percentage difference in the number of correct answers.
A hypothesis test (McNemar's test) was then conducted to assess the statistical significance of the difference between the percentage of correct answers before and after the course.

Results

Among the 70 participants in the course, 48 answered all the questions and results refer to this group. Respondents were from 14 European and Mediterranean area Countries (56.3% women, 43.8% in their 4^th year of residency); 60.4% of respondents stated they had an ultrasound training period during their residency.
Participants improved significantly after the course: differences between the percentage of correct answers before and after the test were significant (α = 5%) for seven out of ten questions (e.g., normal and thickened colon).
Eleven trainees had previous experience of performing bowel ultrasound or had previously taken part in a similar course. Answers given by the subgroup of participants (n = 37) who had never taken part in a bowel ultrasound course or performed a bowel ultrasound were similar: six answers out of ten showed a significant improvement.
Among the 48 residents, 95.8% self-reported to have improved their capabilities after the course, and every respondent (100%) would have recommended this course to a friend colleague.

Conclusion

Our data show a strong impact on the ability to identify basic anatomical structures and pathological images, such as thickened bowel wall, using bowel ultrasound after a brief theoretical and practical course.
Although test and post-test surveys may have potential biases [1], the number of participants who responded appropriately to the questionnaire is greater or comparable to previous studies on ultrasound training. [2-5]
Further studies should evaluate if the benefit of a brief course apply to practical examinations and is maintained in residents who do not actively perform intestinal ultrasound over time.

References

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