Abstract
[Purpose] It takes a long time to master technique of shoulder-arthroscopy. We introduced shoulder-virtual-reality-arthroscopic-trainer(VRAT): INSIGHT-Arthroscopy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether arthroscopic experience and knowledge of anatomy reflected on the results of VRAT or not, and evaluate the learning effect.
[Materials] Twelve medical students, 6residents, 6shoulder surgeons.
[Methods] Time for deleting 11balls (if the ball was touched by probe during 2 seconds, the ball had disappeared) in glenohumeral joint was measured 5 times. Data was statistically compared by Fisher's-PLSD-test. Statistical significance was set at 5%.
[Resu lt] The initial time of shoulder surgeons, residents, and medical students were 211sec, 595sec, 495sec, the shortest times were 87sec, 157sec, 156sec, and average times were134sec, 293sec, 278sec, respectively. All the times of shoulder surgeons were shorter than those of residents and medical students, significantly. No significant difference between residents and medical students was found. Among all groups, the shortest times were shorter than the initial times, significantly. Shortening rate (longest time-shortest time/longest time) of shoulder surgeons, residents, and medical students were 56%, 67%, and 68%, and no significant difference among the 3 groups was found.
[Discussion ] The results of shoulder surgeons may reflect hand-eye-coordination, oblique-scope-technique based on experience of shoulder-arthroscopy. Because performance on VRTA correlated with surgical experience, VRTA may be useful for evaluation of arthroscopic technique. Because the results of residents, who knew anatomy better than medical students, were similar to those of medical students, the task in this study may not be enough to assess anatomical knowledge. Although all groups obtained learning effect, we want to know the longevity of learning effect. The results implicated VRAT had the validity for arthroscopic training. In the future, we hope the training with VRAT will contribute to the upbringing of the specialist of shoulder arthroscopic surgery from a younger age.
