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Medical AR expands to hip replacement surgery

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October 28, 2022

Two firms have partnered to revolutionize total hip replacement surgeries using holograms, augmented reality and virtual reality, according to a report from insideindianabusiness.com.

Boston, Maryland-based Surgical Planning Associates Inc. has teamed with Warsaw, Indiana-based Zimmer Biomet to develop and implement the use of its FDA-approved HipInsight system in operating rooms. The system projects holographic versions of a patient's individual anatomy to the surgeon's view via Microsoft HoloLens 2 VR glasses, providing an augmented reality framework for more accurate and confident implant placement in real time, and it is "the first FDA-approved mixed reality navigation system for total hip replacement," according to the report.

"You're looking at the patient's body and seeing inside it before you even cut skin," Nitin Goyal, CTO at Zimmer Biomet, said in the report. "It allows you to do things that we just couldn't do before in terms of seeing anatomical differences between patients. It helps us place parts in ways we just didn't have the opportunity to before."

Stating that Zimmer Biomet already has a growing portfolio of mixed-reality operating solutions, Goyal added that this type of operation is on its way to becoming the norm in the field. "The old era of putting in parts with the precision of your eye has gone by the wayside. The standard of care is rapidly becoming leveraging technology like this to guide precision," Goyal said in the report. "I think it's been a generational change. Especially (for) folks who are finishing residency and fellowship training now, the expectation around how technology should guide surgery is high, and there's more ready acceptance of technology in the operating room."