Industrial research project of new real-time guiding system for surgeons' operations using Artificial Intelligence

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This industrial research project aims to validate our existing Artificial Intelligence guiding system prototype aimed at guiding surgeons during Intramedullary Nailing (IM) surgeries in less time, with less radiation, generating fewer risks to both patients and medical personnel.Surgical techniques for IM have remained largely unchanged for decades. IM surgery is used to assist in the welding of broken bones and is performed over 1.6 million times per year worldwide.Unfortunately, what should be a straightforward operation taking 20 minutes, can take as long as 2 hours as per the guesswork involved in the current methodology and require a large number of X-rays due to the difficulty in identifying where the nails need to be placed. These challenges can mean increased exposure to radiation for the surgical team and patients and additional risks for patients from increased anaesthetics and blood loss.With over £500 million spent by the NHS only in intramedullary nailing surgeries every year (around £10,000 per patient), we can reduce operating time, radiation, risks and costs while increasing patient satisfaction, reducing cancelled operations and length of stay and clearing waiting lists.After talking to 135 orthopaedic surgeons, at different levels, from the UK and Spain, 93% of them agreed it is not always easy to perform this surgery and a further 97% are keen to see a new solution in the market to guide them.This prototype uses a series of Artificial Intelligence algorithms including Augmented Reality, tracking algorithms and computer vision, implemented on a Mixed Reality headset to provide a hands-free solution capable of showing surgeons in 3D real-time feedback of where to operate rather than relying on 2D static X-Ray.