J. Scott Reid, MD, performed the first augmented reality (AR)-guided total hip replacement in the region at Union Pines Surgery Center on the campus of Tulsa Bone & Joint today. The system, which received FDA clearance in January, is the first intraoperative AR guidance platform for joint replacement to display 3D models of the patient’s anatomy, implants, and instruments inside the body in real time.
Union Pines is the third site globally to have the augmented reality-guided hip replacement surgery performed. Previous surgeries have been performed at New England Baptist Hospital in Boston and Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina.
Traditional hip replacement technology gives the surgeon access to two-dimensional X-rays. However, the augmented reality guidance Dr. Reid employed projects holograms on AR glasses that give him ‘X-ray vision’ into the patient’s body.
“Hip replacement surgery has a long history of improving the quality of life of patients suffering from diseases affecting the hip joint,” said Dr. Reid. “Despite the excellent track record, complications still occur. HipInsight is a platform that gives the surgeon more information about the patient than we’ve ever had before. The ability to anticipate any challenges before the surgery and then visualize the anatomy in real time is beyond any currently available technology.”
The AR-guided system is the first FDA-cleared surgical platform for joints to be contained entirely within a head-mounted device. Unlike robotic and traditional navigation systems, there aren’t any large external workstations, cameras or screens. Over 400,000 hip surgeries are performed each year in the U.S., making them one of the most common and highest total spend elective operations, according to a 2020 study by researchers at Johns Hopkins. With the aging population, hip surgeries are expected to grow by 71% by 2030, according to a 2018 study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. Technologies like the one employed by Dr. Reid aim to help surgeons improve outcomes with minimal complications.
Dr. Reid has been using the Hip Xpert system, the precursor to HipInsight, for several years. “Hip Xpert is innovative in that it is not tied to one implant system, technique, approach or company,” Reid says. “It provides immense detail, but we are still applying data from the software without being able to actively visualize implant data in real time. HipInsight changes that. We still get all of the information we need to best position implants, but we get to see all of that as it happens. I am very excited to be on the front end of the HipInsight rollout.”
Below is footage of the HipInsight augmented reality tool at work during surgery.
