Surgical Navigation in Orthopedics: Workflow and System Review

Abstract

Orthopedic surgery is a widely performed clinical procedure that deals with problems in relation to the bones, joints, and ligaments of the human body, such as musculoskeletal trauma, spine diseases, sports injuries, degenerative diseases, infections, tumors, and congenital disorders. Surgical navigation is generally recognized as the next generation technology of orthopedic surgery. The development of orthopedic navigation systems aims to analyze pre-, intra- and/or postoperative data in multiple modalities and provide an augmented reality 3-D visualization environment to improve clinical outcomes of surgical orthopedic procedures. This chapter investigates surgical navigation techniques and systems that are currently available in orthopedic procedures. In particular, optical tracking, electromagnetic localizers and stereoscopic vision, as well as commercialized orthopedic navigation systems are thoroughly discussed. Moreover, advances and development trends in orthopedic navigation are also discussed in this chapter. While current orthopedic navigation systems enable surgeons to make precise decisions in the operating room by integrating surgical planning, instrument tracking, and intraoperative imaging, it still remains an active research field which provides orthopedists with various technical disciplines, e.g., medical imaging, computer science, sensor technology, and robotics, to further develop current orthopedic navigation methods and systems.

Keywords: Intelligent orthopedics; Review; Surgical navigation; Workflow and system.