Haptic Positioning Environment for the Hip Resurfacing Surgery

Abstract

The development of new robotic surgical instruments has brought significant improvements to the execution and outcome of surgical procedures. They allow shorter intraoperative interventions with higher precision of the surgical gesture, which has clear benefits for the patients, surgeons and hospitals. Perhaps the main retardant of the widespread of these new tools is the ability of getting the surgeonâ??s hands-on with the new systems, for both initial evaluation and later on to overcome the initial learning curve. To accelerate this stage, and keep costs to a minimum, simulation tools have been introduced which allow physical surgeon-patient interaction through haptic devices. In this work, we focus on the Hip Resurfacing Surgical Procedure, and develop an interactive virtual environment for the insertion of the hip resurfacing guide wire with high precision and accuracy. The surgical tool used is a robotic arm that allows geometric accuracy and repeatability while the surgeon keeps control over the force exerted on the patient.