Computer assisted orthopaedic surgery. Image guided and robotic assistive technologies.

Technologies are emerging that will influence the way in which orthopaedic surgery is planned, simulated, and performed. Recent advances in the fields of medical imaging, computer vision, and robotics have provided the enabling technologies to permit computer aided surgery to become an established area which can address clinical needs. Although these technologies have been applied in industry for more than 20 years, the field of computer assisted orthopaedic surgery is still in its infancy. Image guided and surgical navigation systems, robotic assistive devices, and surgical simulators have begun to emerge from the laboratory and hold the potential to improve current surgical practice and patients' outcomes. The goals of these new clinically focused technologies 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 of surgery. The medical community is beginning to see the benefit of these enabling technologies which can be realized only through the collaboration and combined expertise of engineers, roboticists, computer scientists, and surgeons.