Markerless Augmented Reality for the Future Orthopedic Surgery – MARSurg

Today, according to various reports analyzing the medical device market, those related to orthopedic surgery are growing rapidly and will represent more than 22.4 Billion US dollars in 2025. Joint prostheses (hip, knee, hip) account for nearly 37% of the market share. These devices include conventional auxiliary instruments, custom guides, navigation systems, and robotic systems. More recently, navigation systems based on the use of augmented reality have been developed. They are recognized for their accuracy, low cost, ease of use and clinical added value. It is in this context that the MARSurg project aims to implement an innovative surgical navigation solution with high scientific, technological and clinical potential.

The MARSurg project aims to develop a generic platform for innovative surgical navigation to assist orthopedic surgery, particularly total knee replacement, (TKR). The objectif is to develop an original augmented reality platform with high clinical potential. To do this, several scientific and technological barriers must be overcome. Therefore, we aim at developing original, accurate and robust methods for the calculation of 3D pose of objects (surgical instruments) and joints, in particular of the knee, using RGB-D images without using artificial markers, poorly accurate and invasive usually used in orthopaedic surgery. In addition, automatic segmentation methods of RGB-D images will be proposed using machine learning approaches, as well as multimodal 3D registration methods (RGB-D versus preoperative CT or MRI images) will be developed.

Beyond the scientific, technological and clinical objectives of this project, we aim at a pre-industrial product in the form of an augmented reality platform for knee surgery at TRL5-TR6 ready for a short-term industrial transfer.