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HCA East Florida’s Miami-Dade facilities, Mercy Hospital and Kendall Regional Medical Center, now are offering spine surgery with an innovative augmented reality (AR) guidance system that looks inside a patient’s body as if the surgeon has “x-ray vision.”
The specialty headset brings a new standard of personalization and care to the operating room as it lets surgeons know exactly where to place implants within each patient’s unique anatomy. The program was launched at sister HCA Healthcare facility, Aventura Hospital and Medical Center, in early November.
AR guided spine surgery is different from other image guidance systems as it allows surgeons to maintain their focus directly on the patient, rather than on a distant screen displaying the patient’s anatomy. The system also avoids the need for multiple x-rays, which reduces radiation exposure for both doctor and patient.
“Augmented Reality is revolutionizing the operating room and we are excited to embrace this next chapter of surgical innovation,” said Mercy Hospital CEO David Donaldson. “The market-wide launch of this program enables all three HCA Miami-Dade hospitals to provide the most forward-thinking technology and quality of care to spinal patients all across South Florida.”
The AR guided system consists of a transparent near-eye-display headset and all elements of a traditional navigation system. It accurately determines the position of surgical tools, in real-time, and superimposes them on the patient’s CT data. The navigation data is then projected onto the surgeon’s retina using the headset, allowing him or her to simultaneously look at both the patient and the navigation data. The augmented reality headset gives the surgeon better control and visualization, which leads to effective, faster and safer surgeries.
“AR-guided spine surgery benefits patients by giving surgeons a complete, 3-D image of each individual’s anatomy, driving greater accuracy during complex procedures,” said Dr. Amar Rajadhyaksha, orthopedic spinal surgeon at Kendall Regional Medical Center. “This cutting edge technology actually gives the surgeon ‘X-ray Vision.’ It will allow us to perform minimally invasive spine procedures with more precision and efficiency, thus significantly lowering the risks associated with traditional spinal surgery and improving patient outcomes.”
