COMPUTER-ASSISTED ORTHOPEDIC-SURGERY - IMAGE-GUIDED AND ROBOTIC ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES

Technologies are emerging that will influence the way in which orthopa edic surgery is planned, simulated, and performed, Recent advances in the fields of medical imaging, computer vision, and robotics have prov ided the enabling technologies to permit computer aided surgery to bec ome an established area which can address clinical needs. Although the se technologies have been applied in industry for more than 20 years, the field of computer assisted orthopaedic surgery is still in its inf ancy, Image guided and surgical navigation systems, robotic assistive devices, and surgical simulators have begun to emerge from the laborat ory and hold the potential to improve current surgical practice and pa tients' outcomes. The goals of these new clinically focused technologi es are to develop interactive, patient specific preoperative planners to optimize the performance of surgery and the postoperative biologic response, and develop more precise and less invasive interactive smart tools and sensors to assist in the accurate and precise performance o f surgery, The medical community is beginning to see the benefit of th ese enabling technologies which can be realized only through the colla boration and combined expertise of engineers, roboticists, computer sc ientists, and surgeons.