Wireless Surgical Tools for Mechanical Measurements during Scoliosis Surgery

Comprehensively understanding the mechanics of loads applied by orthopaedic surgeons and distributed to the spine during scoliosis corrective surgery may improve surgical outcome and patient safety. Instruments to measure forces applied by orthopaedic surgeons have been reported. This paper presents instrumented hooks and screws with a real time wireless data acquisition system to measure loads and moments distributed to the spine during scoliosis surgery. From laboratory tests, the maximum error of posterior/anterior forces and moments were 2-3% of the maximum loads during surgery. This study improves the understanding of mechanics during surgical correction.