Image-guidance, Robotics, and the Future of Spine Surgery.

Abstract

Spine surgery has seen considerable advancements over the last 2 decades, particularly in the fields of image-guidance and robotics. These technologies offer the potential to overcome the various technical challenges in spinal surgery, such as physical and mental fatigue, hand tremor, difficulties with manual dexterity, and surgical precision. This review provides an overview of the image-guidance and robotics systems currently available. It will also provide an insight into the emerging technologies in development in the field of spine surgery. Image-guided and robotic-assisted surgical systems have been demonstrated to be safe, accurate, and time-efficient. Future advancements in the field include "augmented reality" systems, which build on these navigation platforms, but are yet to come to market. These developing technologies have considerable potential to improve the field of spine surgery. Further research is required in this area to determine superiority of these developing technologies over conventional techniques before widespread use should be adapted.