Considered an important example of today’s technological capabilities being applied to medicine, software-guided surgery has emerged as one of the most reliable medical technologies and it continues to help transform surgeries into safer and less invasive procedures.2
Software-guided surgery, also known as surgical navigation or computer-assisted surgery is a method that some orthopedic surgeons use during hip procedures.
Similar to a car or mobile Global Positioning System (GPS), software-guided surgical systems continuously track points of the anatomy and display them on a computer monitor in the operating room before, during and after surgery, helping to guide the surgeon through important milestones of the procedure. The software-guided surgery system provides your doctor with additional information and measurements and tracks the surgical instruments being used for the procedure.
In hip replacement surgery, the surgical navigation software will measure the position of your hip bones and the surgical instruments in relation to each other, helping to calculate leg alignment and helping to support accurate implant placement. This way, the system also allows the surgeon to intra-operatively react and verify or, if necessary, correct performed treatment steps during surgery. Accurate placement and stability of artificial hip components is critical to the overall function of a new hip joint and can potentially help implants to last longer. 3
Talk to your orthopedic surgeon to find out if software-guided hip replacement surgery is an option for you.
