“Can You Feel It”: An Early Experience with Simulated Vibration to Recreate Glenoid Reaming

When developing educational simulators, meaningful haptic feedback is important. To our knowledge, no shoulder arthroplasty surgical simulator exists. This study focuses on simulating vibration haptics of glenoid reaming for shoulder arthroplasty using a novel glenoid reaming simulator. METHODS: We validated a novel custom simulator constructed using a vibration transducer transmitting simulated reaming vibrations to a powered nonwearing reamer tip through a 3D-printed glenoid. Validation and system fidelity were evaluated by 9 fellowship-trained shoulder surgeon experts performing a series of simulated reamings. We then completed the validation process through a questionnaire focused on experts' experience with the simulator. RESULTS: Experts correctly identified 52% ± 8% of surface profiles and 69% ± 21% of cartilage layers. Experts identified the vibration interface between simulated cartilage and subchondral bone (77% ± 23% of the time), indicating high fidelity for the system. An interclass correlation coefficient for experts' reaming to the subchondral plate was 0.682 (confidence interval 0.262-0.908). On a general questionnaire, the perceived utility of the simulator as a teaching tool was highly ranked (4/5), and experts scored “ease of instrument manipulation” (4.19/5) and “realism of the simulator” (4.11/5) the highest. The mean global evaluation score was 6.8/10 (range 5-10). CONCLUSIONS: We examined a simulated glenoid reamer and feasibility of haptic vibrational feedback for training. Experts validated simulated vibration feedback for glenoid simulation reaming, and the results suggested that this may be a useful additional training adjuvant. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level II, prospective study.