Development and Validation of a Novel Patient Specific Guide System for Minimially Invasive Total Shoulder Arthroplasty

Patient Specific Instruments (PSIs) are increasingly being used to improve the accuracy of surgical procedures, especially arthroplasty, where precise bone preparation and implant placement are critical in the procedure’s success (Farron et al., 2006; Favre et al., 2008). To the authors’ knowledge, arthroplasty PSIs have only been applied to traditional, highlyinvasive surgical approaches, such as those described by Hendel et al. (2012). However, PSIs can enable the development of minimally invasive surgical techniques by reducing the surgeon’s need to clearly visualise anatomical landmarks. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to design and evaluate a novel PSI for shoulder arthroplasty which would allow the entire procedure to be accomplished through a minimally invasive approach.