Development of an Augmented Reality system based on marker tracking for robotic-assisted minimally invasive spine surgery

Spine surgery is performed nowadays for a great number of spine pathologies. It is estimated that globally, 4.83 million spinal surgeries are performed annually. In this scenario, traditional open interventions to the spine have been integrated and often substituted by Minimally Invasive Surgeries (MIS). The main MIS disadvantages are loss of depth perception, reduced field of view and consequent difficulty in intra-operative identification of relevant anatomical structures. To overcome these drawbacks, recently, Augmented Reality (AR) has been introduced in surgical applications. The aim of this thesis is the development of an AR system for robotic-assisted MIS. The system will provide real-time information to the surgeon during the intervention, without losing focus on the surgical field, to make the intervention safer and to reduce surgical time. Successful adoption of the proposed technologies would change the way in which MIS are performed allowing safer, more efficient and more personalized procedures, in which surgical planning could be defined taking into account individual patients’ anatomy and pathology.