Augmedics and surgeons from Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Hospital and Israel teamed up to complete Augmedics' second cadaver study using the company's xvision-spine system.
Here's what you need to know.
1. Surgeons placed 120 pedicle screws in five separate cadavers and had 96.7 percent screw placement accuracy.
2. The xvision-spine system is an augmented reality surgical navigation system designed to give surgeons "X-ray vision" during complex spine procedures. Surgeons can navigate inside a patient's body through skin and tissue, allowing for quicker surgery time.
3. Augmedics designed the system to include a transparent near-eye-display headset that depicts the patient's spine in 3-D.
4. Timothy Witham, MD, from Johns Hopkins Hospital, was among the surgeons involved. He said, "Typically what we have to do during minimally invasive spine surgery is look away from where we're working. But xvision has all the image-guided information directly in front of you in the goggles you're wearing, while you're placing the instrumentation."
5. Surgeons involved in the study were also asked to complete an experience survey. The objective of the study was to assess the comparative accuracy of augmented reality assisted pedicle screw insertion in comparison to conventional pedicle screw insertion methods.