The learning curve of novice surgeons takes about 25 surgeries to be proficient at the knee replacement procedure. So it is not just enough if we design efficient and more ergonomic surgical tools, it is also important to provide a learning platform for them to get better before they operate on a real patient. Although many training simulators are available to train different surgical procedures, most of them are digital trainers that simulate the surgical process in a virtual world. There are physical training simulators available in the market for surgeries like laparoscopy and arthroscopy, but not for arthroplasty. FOXPAT is a reusable training simulator for knee arthroplasty surgery. Unlike the existing digital simulators, FOXPAT is a physical simulation of a patient knee with integrated sensors. The training tool lets novice surgeons use actual instruments that are used in the operating theatre. Besides providing a realistic experience of the surgical procedure, the sensors track the usage of tools provide feedback to the surgeons on their outcome.
Arthroplasty being an invasive surgical procedure, any training model will be destroyed in every training session. This makes it difficult for any manufacturer to provide a reusable design that the novice surgeons can train multiples of times. Foxpat can promise such a long term reusability. Novice surgeons can practice the whole surgical procedure of knee replacement before they try on an actual patient. This includes letting surgeons performing actual cutting, drilling and milling procedures. By just replacing a set of low-cost polyurethane bones after every practice session, Foxpat will be ready for a next practice session. As the product is used for training the novice surgeons, these sessions take place either in a conference hall or in a hospital. A training support team or a local technician in the hospital helps to set up the device.
During this project, two iterations of working prototypes were developed and tested before reaching the final design. This design is now ready to be manufactured in small quantities of 50 pieces per year and requires another iteration for large-scale production.