Broader Impacts
Health: As a surgical tool, our main priority is to benefit the health of those who use the tool and who the tool will be used on. For us, this includes surgeons, nurses, and patients. As it has been noted, our problem causes surgeries to fail and overall more time spent in surgery attempting to fix the problem. Our solution will attempt to solve this problem by reducing the error in the tunnel placement that is drilled, which will reduce the amount of failed surgeries. It will also lessen operation time, which reduces the risk of complications [1]. By reducing the risk of complications and the amount of failed surgeries, more patients will have improved health.
Safety: The current surgical technology used in ACL surgeries is not up to par in terms of safety. Major complications such as missed concomitant injuries, tunnel malposition, patellar fracture, knee stiffness, and infection can occur as a result of tool-related errors. Even with the most innovative and minimally invasive tools on the market, there is still a risk for these complications. Overall improvements of the mobility, functionality, and comfortability of these ACL guide tools can help to ensure that patients get safer surgeries with less of a risk for these complications.
Welfare: Better surgical tools allow for patients to directly live more comfortable lives as the surgeons operating on them are less likely to make mistakes and/or are required to make less invasive procedures. ACL reconstruction surgery is one of the most common major operations that athletes must undergo, and so this applies especially here. The surgery has continued to evolve for the better over the past few decades, allowing the patient to recover stronger and faster, so there is no reason to believe this evolution should slow down [2]. By being able to design a tool which further decreases the chances and severity of complications, fewer athletes will be prevented from doing what they love.
Global: Guide tools such as this allow surgeries like ACL tears to be done more effectively and with less experience. Globally, this is important because it can help anyone around the world with varying levels of experience to do the surgery. Unlike many injuries where eventually the body can heal itself, ACL tears will never heal naturally, and surgery is required. Our tool will hopefully allow anyone to more easily and safely provide this necessary medical care.
Cultural: Drill guides for Lemaire LET would improve work environment efficiency for surgeons and increase efficacy of the procedure. Higher success rates improve the trust that patients have in medical professionals, and decreased time commitment for both parties reduce stress surrounding the procedure. As LET procedures become more viable the re-injury rates from ACL reconstruction should also decrease, reducing cost for hospitals, surgeons, patients and insurance companies. Ultimately increasing ACL reconstruction success rates also leads to a more active population by enabling injured athletes to return to activity.
Social: More likely to have a surgery performed if there is less of a risk for complications. Surgeons will be more willing to perform Lamaire LET if they are more comfortable and can find the optimal angle to drill at better. Additionally, this tool will be useful for students who are practicing to become orthopedic surgeons as it will allow them to feel more comfortable when using the tool in a real life surgery situation [3].
Environmental: Since our work is mostly about human beings, there is not a direct impact on the environment that excludes humans from the living organisms. Our goal however, is to overall reduce the amount of surgical time, this would reduce the amount of resources needed.
Economic: By effectively creating a guide instrument to mitigate tunnel convergence for an LET, a surgeon can spend less time on surgery and execute the procedure with ease. About 88% of athletes who sustain injury of the anterior cruciate ligament have high expectations to returning to a pre-injury performance state following ACL reconstruction [4]. However, only about 55% manage to achieve this [1]. This decline in returning athletes is attributed to more risk of injury and failure. The LET procedure is particularly helpful for young athletes with high grade rotational laxity to return to their contact pivoting sport. An upfront LET procedure can reduce the costs of services from complications that the consumer or athlete would otherwise have to spend in more surgical treatment following reinjury. Also, by making this advanced tool cheap and affordable, it will be able to be distributed globally and made more accessible.
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