Computer-Assisted Operational Techniques from the Perspective of a System and Implant Manufacturer

No other technology in the field of orthopaedics and traumatology can match the success of computer-assisted operational procedures over the last ten years. This has been achieved thanks to advances in industrial measurement techniques and robot technology. The obvious potential of these technologies for increasing safety and accuracy in surgery has yielded a range of products for the active and passive support of orthopaedic and traumatology surgery. For example, the implant manufacturer Precision Implants AG/PI Systems, the development and production centre of the companies PLUS Endoprothetik and Intraplant, exploited its existing know-how and developed the PiGalileo navigation and robot system using industrial measurement technology. A small robot, the PiGalileo CAS, was the first product developed. It was a two-axis system for knee endoprostheses controlled by a laptop computer and was based on the large robots used in industry, with adaptation for a sterile environment. The cost of this equipment, without navigational support, was about the same as the equipment and instruments used to carry out conventional knee prosthesis and allowed the technology to be accessible to a large area of application (◘Fig. 78–1).