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Similar towards the GPS devices we’ve become based mostly on in our cars, new technology allows doctors to perform minimally invasive spine surgery with incredible accuracy.
Three-dimensional navigation enhances visualization with this complicated lumbar fusion surgery, resulting in a quicker time to recover for patients, explains Dr. Steven Mather, an orthopedic surgeon who performs the procedure.
“The 3-D navigation works just like the GPS in your car,” says Dr. Mather, who treats patients at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, Ill. “However the precision C because it’s utilized in small distances C is accurate to under 1 millimeter.”
Spinal fusion surgery is performed on patients who are experiencing extreme back pain; the surgery permanently joins together two or more bones (vertebrae) within the spine there isn’t any movement together. When the painful vertebrae do not move, they ought to not cause pain.
Mather utilizes the computer-aided navigation system to pinpoint the areas to fuse.
“It’s similar to playing a video game,” he says.
