Development of a Lumbar Puncture Simulator using Virtual Reality

Abstract

The lumbar puncture (LP) procedure is a technique used in various medical specialties for therapeutic and diagnostic with the sampling of cerebrospinal fluid. It is a highly used procedure in medical practice, therefore medical students have to know how to perform it. Some times students learn and practice this procedure through the apprenticeship method or with manikins, the first method can cause damage in the tissues of the patient due the stress or anxiety of the students. In the case of simulators based on manikins, they present some limitations, such as the difficulty to represent anatomical variations, the need to constantly acquire consumables (fake skin, ligaments), and the difficulty to simulate the biomechanical characteristics of the tissues. These limitations can be eliminated with the integration of virtual reality, allowing training and learning of skills with the repetition of the activities in a safe and controlled environment. For this project, the development of a virtual lumbar puncture simulator is de- scribed. The developed simulator uses virtual reality, is based in the user centered design approach, and it is compatible with different haptic devices, with the objective to improve the training of this procedure without harming patients. This project consists on four stages: the analysis of the requirements, the proto- typing, the preliminary tests and the user study. With the preliminary tests some improvements were identified and made; and then, with the user study, the usability and user experience were evaluated.