Computer Assisted Placement

[sportsnut3007]

Insertion of the artificial disc replacement: a ca... [Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2009] - PubMed result

[Keano16]

Doctor Choll Kim, president at SMISS uses GPS technology for navigation for minimally-invasive scoliosis correction.

[Carson]

Wow. Thank you, sportsnut. Pretty wild. For years I've been imagining/wondering if surgical placement of artificial disc would be computer navigated and post-placement checked. Always exciting to read of progress! At the same time it's a bit frightening to read that an inexperienced surgeon using computer assistance could know "significantly" better results than an experienced ADR surgeon. It surely speaks to just how valuable an experienced, thorough, placement perfecting surgeon is and why people will travel the world over to seek them.

It would seem computer assisted placement would have helped that individual who had his disc installed backward as well as Mark Perth and others with suboptimal disc placement. In theory, computer navigation could prevent lots of suffering, human inconsistency and/or"off-days" when a surgeon isn't performing at peak levels. What is the parallax effect?

Fifteen lumbar intervertebral disc prostheses were placed using Vector Vision image guidance by an inexperienced TDR-surgeon. Fifteen lumbar intervertebral disc prostheses were placed with exclusive use of fluoroscopy by an experienced TDR-surgeon. After insertion, DICOM computed tomography scans were analyzed using computer software to assess placement accuracy of each disc prosthesis.

RESULTS: The [computer] navigated placement of the disc was significantly more accurate. Only 3 navigated disc prostheses were suboptimal and none was poorly placed. CONCLUSION: Surgical computer-assisted navigation may be a useful tool in the hands of a spine surgeon to achieve more accurate placement of the disc prosthesis. Because of the parallax effect, computer-assisted navigation offers more placement accuracy than stan- dard fluoroscopy.