First U.S. Lumbar Fusion with Medacta Augmented Reality

Medacta announced successful completion of the first lumbar fusion procedure in the U.S. utilizing the M.U.S.T. Pedicle Screw System in combination with the NextAR Spine, the first CE-Marked and FDA-cleared augmented reality (AR)-based surgical application with intraoperative guidance in spine surgery.

NextAR Spine assists the surgeon in precisely locating anatomical structures in either open, mini-open or percutaneous spine procedures for the safe placement of spine implants. The system tracks the patient’s anatomy, continuously updating its position on patient-specific 3D x-ray images, such as 3D C-Arm or 3D CT scan. The surgeon can plan and execute spine surgeries by selecting among real-time (3D Direct) and preoperative planning (3D-3D) approaches.

During the operation, NextAR supports the surgeon’s vision with real-time surgical guidance superimposed onto the operative field to enhance precision and enable data-driven decision-making. This enables personalized adjustments based on each patient’s unique anatomy and biomechanics.

NextAR is Medacta’s proprietary Augmented Reality Surgical Platform, which includes dedicated smart delivery tools:

• NextAR TS (Tracking System), a compact, integrated single-use solution, delivered terminally sterile.
• NextAR Smart Glasses, surgical guidance on the surgeon’s line-of-sight.

NextAR is reportedly the first platform to offer personalized augmented reality solutions for both joint replacement and spine procedures. In line with Medacta’s philosophy of healthcare sustainability, the NextAR platform is offered as a hardware system with limited capital investment and single-use instrumentation at a low cost-per-case and offers the ability to host software for multiple applications.

NextAR is part of Medacta’s MySolutions Personalized Ecosystem, a network of digital solutions designed to improve patient outcomes and healthcare efficiency.

Source: Medacta