UAE-based Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon Dr Ved P. Goswami, FRCS, MS, MCh Orth (UK), has performed the first computer-assisted shoulder replacement surgery in the Middle East, using a new technology allowing live navigation of the operative site.
The technology, ExactechGPS Total Shoulder Application, provides the surgeon with a real-time 3D computer model of a patient’s shoulder during surgery. It does this by combining CT scan images with data from instruments mounted with tiny infrared cameras. The software allows the surgeon to guide a bone drill mounted with an infrared camera to the exact location plotted out during pre-op planning and determine drilling depth, screw placement and the ability to adjust the pre-op surgical plan, if necessary. The cameras communicate with a computer tablet that displays a digital model of the patient’s shoulder, showing a drill location like a dot on a smartphone’s map app.
The software allows surgeons to virtually plan the operation using a