Manouguian Technique Film
A surgical technique film built on deliberate practice.
A chaptered, captioned demonstration film of the Manouguian aortic root enlargement, performed on a synthetic bench model and framed around deliberate practice and iterative refinement of the anastomosis. It is a teaching artifact for cardiothoracic surgical education — a clean, repeatable way to study a technically demanding maneuver without any patient footage.
The problem
Aortic root enlargement is a high-stakes, low-frequency maneuver that is hard to study or rehearse outside the operating room, and conventional case footage is bound by patient privacy. There is a need for a clear, reproducible way to demonstrate and refine the technique that can be shared and reviewed openly.
What I built
A purpose-built synthetic bench model and a chaptered six-to-ten-minute film of the Manouguian technique performed on it. The rig uses concentric Dacron tube grafts to stand in for the annulus and aorta, a removable mandrel for shape and as a needle backstop, and commissural stay sutures under spring tension for even, realistic loading.
How it works
The model is sewn and incised like the real anatomy, with a valve sizer used before and after to demonstrate the gain in effective annulus diameter. The film is captioned rather than narrated and broken into chapters, deliberately framed around growth-over-reps and the iterative quality of a well-built anastomosis.
Where it stands
Bench-model design, mount and tension schematic, and materials list are complete; production is in progress as a technical showcase and teaching piece for cardiothoracic surgical education.