Augmented reality in spine surgery: critical appraisal and status of development.

In spinal surgery, computer assistance in the operating room is gaining fast-paced acceptance, but it would be simplistic to imagine that added technology is systematically beneficial to the patient. As surgeons are not experts in computer technology, there is a tendency to abandon the evaluation to the market and say the best will emerge. Based on our experience with the development of our own system and confronted with the emergence of new systems adopting solutions we had rejected, we propose a framework to compare various systems between them. Similar evaluation protocols are in use for surgical implants, the same should be done for computer assistance.