Augmented Reality-assisted knee surgeries gain popularity with better outcomes

Bengaluru: The use of Augmented Reality (AR) has gained popularity with advancement in medical technology.

Pioneering the use of AR, orthopaedic surgeons in the city are performing knee replacements with enhanced accuracy, resulting in optimal implant positioning, improved joint function, and lasting pain relief.

AR-assisted surgeries leverage specialised glasses to display real-time precise calculations, facilitating minimally invasive procedures as they enable pre-planned measures and outcomes to be mapped out.

Dr Sai Krishna B Naidu, a senior knee surgeon at a private hospital, recently attended to a 72-year-old patient with severe knee arthritis. He quoted a troubling statistic: approximately 20% of knee replacement surgeries, equivalent to two out of every 10 patients, result in unsatisfactory outcomes due to pain and complications arising from improper implant alignment.

"The AI-assisted software has data of about 15,000 patients fed into it, which is aligned to match the patient's knees, at the time of operating on the table (which) we can see on the glasses. The data will tell me which is the right thing for the patient, including the angle of the cut to be made," he said, noting that the technology offers real-time guidance to surgeons and minimises the margin of error.

Dr Sunil G Kini, another expert in the field, pointed to the significant cost advantage of AR-assisted surgery compared to robotic procedures, explaining: "It might cost about half as much as a robotic surgery and will not require a bulky machine."

Dr Kini also revealed a significant advantage of AR-assisted surgery: a reduced risk of fat embolism compared to conventional knee replacements. Nonetheless, he noted that AR cannot replace a surgeon, whose expertise is necessary to perfect the conventional knee replacement surgery.

Dr Shrikanth HM from Bowring Hospital said government hospitals that follow conventional methods could provide enhanced care with the introduction of advanced tools. "We are more than ready to adopt such technology if the government is willing to bring it in," he said.

Plans of health dept 

Health Commissioner D Randeep said knee replacement, an elective surgery, may not get top priority among the health facilities under the state health department. "However, this could be adopted in medical college hospitals since they would also have the super speciality experience and the infrastructure for this," he explained.

The department is open to collaborating with a private company willing to provide the software and tools.

"Since the number of such cases might not be very high across the state compared to other immediate procedures, even if we do introduce something like this, it will likely be restricted to district hospitals because of their size and capacity to manage patients."