Training on arthroscopic simulators at the Clinique d’ Eich

Arthroscopic surgery is the gold standard in the treatment of many sports injuries. To perform this well, practical training of many years is required to achieve the necessary skills and proficiency for basic and advanced procedures.

On Monday 24.11.2020, a dozen surgeons from the departments of orthopaedic surgery, traumatology, sports medicine and plastic surgery were able to train their skills in arthroscopic surgery on the latest generation of surgical simulators.

The Swiss company VIRTAMED, world leader in the field, made their equipment available to the teams of the “Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg”. Two state-of-the-art simulators were mounted in a van, acting as a small operating theatre in the car park of the Clinique d’ Eich.

The training was carried out using real arthroscopes on artificial joints combining real vision and virtual reality. This training not only enables the young assistants to master the basics of these minimally invasive surgical instruments, to find their way around a joint, but also - thanks to virtual reality - to visualise the neurovascular structures passing close to the operated joints, which obviously must not be injured during an operation. For more advanced surgeons, this technique allows to evaluate and eventually improve their skills and to train themselves to perform technically more demanding and complex procedures, a little like the skier who mentally reviews a downhill race before the start.

Considering that the principles of surgical education which were developed in the 19th century are still used today, the usefulness and the great need for the development of these machines and this type of systematic training becomes obvious. Currently the only alternative for these simulators is training on cadavers. However, such courses are extremely rare and expensive and even forbidden in some countries because of cultural reasons.

I would like to warmly thank the VIRTAMED team and particularly their Luxembourgish collaborator Mr Claude Hoeltgen for having made their precious equipment available to our teams.