Augmented Reality for Digital Orthopedic Applications

Orthopedic diseases, either degenerative or osteoporotic, have become increasingly prevalent over the past two decades. Compression fracture, one of the most common forms of osteoporotic fractures, renders the patient completely disabled. With the increase in life expectancy, the demand for better healthcare to ensure a better life quality for older people has grown. Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has presented itself as one of the major evolution in surgical techniques. As a greater benefit to the patients, it has reduced morbidity and recovery time after an intervention. This is a very significant advantage for orthopedic MIS. For example, C-arm images are required in spinal surgery. However, this introduces a major radiation hazard to both the patient and the surgeon. Another difficulty is the learning curve associated with this procedure. Currently, a novice surgeon requires many years of practice with an expert surgeon to perform interventions with a high degree of accuracy and safety. Thus, the purpose of the computer-aided surgery system is to develop an augmented reality guidance system for orthopedic surgery to facilitate in surgical procedures and through the process reduce the radiation exposure. Finally, the clinical trials of real-time augmented reality for spinal surgery and a proposed AR system depict in the last section of this chapter.