An Augmented Reality System for Arthroscopic Computer Assisted Mosaic Arthroplasty

Abstract

Arthroscopic procedures require a difficult mental coordinate transform between the instrument in the surgeon's hand and the image shown on a display mounted near the patient. Significant training and experience is required to become proficient. This thesis describes an augmented reality (AR) system designed to assist a surgeon performing a knee cartilage repair procedure by superimposing the virtual surgical plan over the live camera feed. The overlay displays an outline of the patient's anatomy along with information to correctly align surgical tools. A user study was conducted to evaluate the performance of residents and surgeons using the AR system. The study showed a significant worsening in performance across all metrics. The study indicated that the worsening was in large part due to the transition from a classical multiple display setup showing orthogonal views of the tools and anatomy to a single view setup with our augmented reality overlay.