Design of a Robotic Cannula for Robotic Lumber Discectomy

In this paper, the design of the robotic cannula for minimally invasive robotic lumbar discectomy is presented. Lumbar discectomy is the surgery to remove the herniated disc material that is pressing on a nerve root or spinal cord. Recently, a robotic approach to performing this procedure has been proposed that utilizes multiple teleoperated articulated instruments inserted into the surgical workspace using a single cannula. In this paper, we propose a new robotic cannula system to work in conjunction with this new procedure. It allows for the independent teleoperated control of the axial position and rotation of up to three surgical instruments at the same time. The mechanical design, controller design, and prototype of new system are presented in this paper demonstrating a fully functioning device for this application. A novel worm gear and rack system allow for the instrument translation while and embedded gear trains produce the rotational movement. Steady-state errors of less than 50 μm for translation and less than 2° for rotational motion are obtained.

Content Validation of the Arabic Translation of the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index-Revised

Background and PurposeThere is no reliable and valid version of the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index-Revised (PES-NWI-R) in Arabic. The purpose of this study was to describe the systematic instrument translation and validation of the PES-NWI-R.MethodsUsing the Content Validity Indexing-based approach, 32 expert nurses from four countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates) participated in the validation of this translation.ResultsThe content validity index score of the overall scale was excellent (0.87 for the relevancy, and 0.95 for the quality of Arabic translation).ConclusionOur study supported the content validity of the Arabic version of the instrument which provided the first valid Arabic translation of the instrument.

Cultural Adaptation of Research Instruments – The Case of Materialism Scales Culturally Adapted for Use in China

Introduction: This study seeks to understand whether a back translation process can produce culturally adapted statements. Economic materialism levels are often studied using materials designed in English for the Western subject. This study revolves around culturally adapting, for use in China, economic materialism research instruments that were originally created in English for use in the West.Methods: This study used an instrument translation process followed by a validation step in order to culturally adapt research constructs not originally designed for subjects in China. The study consisted of six main steps: forward translation, reconciliation, blind back translation, expert committee review, validation, and statistical analysis. Results: Inadequate back translated items were identified. The analysis revealed several items that should be redesigned specifically for the Chinese cultural context. This study shows that the back translation process may be insufficient, and that Western-developed research instruments can be improved through a process of cultural adaptation.