Antonia Chen, MD, a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, performed the nation's first total knee replacement with Pixee Medical's Knee+ augmented reality system, the company said in a Nov. 2 news release. The French company's surgery technology has been used in knee replacements in Europe and Australia since January.
The system runs on smart glasses and is designed to provide real-time 3D positioning of instruments without changing the overall workflow for surgeons, the company said.
"I have been impressed by the efficiency of the system. The product works well and flows nicely," Dr. Chen said in the release. "The product ... offers an easy and efficient way to achieve a plan compared to robotics and other more traditional navigation systems. You can perform a TKR with only a small set of reusable instruments and essential information in your field of view. This is probably the most cost-effective solution for [an] ASC."