NEW YORK (MedscapeWire) Feb. 18 — Orthopaedic surgeons are pioneering the application of robotics and other computer technologies to the repair of bones, joints, muscles, tendons, and ligaments.
The orthopaedic "toolbox of the future" will incorporate robotic devices as well as imaging systems that let surgeons "see inside" patients during operations using image-guided navigational systems and simulators borrowed from the military, and industry according to Anthony M. DiGioia III, MD, founder and director of the Western Pennsylvania Hospital and Carnegie Mellon's Institute for Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery, who spoke last week at a media briefing at the 69th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in Dallas, Texas.

Though the technologies hold promise individually, their real potential lies in the way orthopaedic surgeons will one day use them in tandem as a "family" of computer assisted tools.

"No one tool will solve all of our clinical problems," said Dr. DiGioia, who serves as president of the International Society for Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery. "Used together, however, the technologies will transform surgery even more radically than fiberoptic technology did when it revolutionized medicine more than a decade ago."

Fiberoptics allows surgeons to operate by inserting specially designed tools into a small scope placed through a small incision. The scope transmits images to a video monitor. The smaller incision means less trauma and a faster recovery.

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