Shoulder arthroscopy simulator performance correlates with resident and shoulder arthroscopy experience

Area of Science:

• Orthopaedic Surgery
• Medical Simulation
• Surgical Education

Background:

• Arthroscopy requires extensive training and practice.
• Developing basic arthroscopic skills can be time-consuming and expensive.
• Simulation offers a potential solution for foundational arthroscopic skill acquisition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the correlation between arthroscopic shoulder simulator performance and resident experience.
• To evaluate the relationship between simulator task completion time and the number of shoulder arthroscopies performed.

Main Methods:

• Twenty-seven orthopaedic residents participated over three years.
• Subjects completed a standardized object localization task on a shoulder simulator.
• Performance was correlated with postgraduate year and arthroscopy case logs.

Main Results:

• Postgraduate year and number of shoulder arthroscopies were key predictors of simulator performance.
• Each additional postgraduate year improved task time by 16 seconds.
• Every 50 additional shoulder arthroscopies decreased task time by 12 seconds.

Conclusions:

• Simulator performance accurately reflects resident experience in arthroscopy.
• Increased clinical experience, particularly in shoulder arthroscopy, correlates with better simulator performance.
• Further research is needed to validate simulator training for improving clinical skills.