A novel computer navigation system for retrograde drilling of osteochondral lesions

Osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) represents an important clinical entity in orthopedic sports medicine. Once surgical intervention is required, retrograde drilling for OCD lesions remains technically challenging. A novel electromagnetic navigation system was developed to be a radiation-free navigation tool providing spatiotemporal real-time information to the surgeon without the need for a stationary patient tracker and without relevant setup and calibration times. The novel system was tested for arthroscopically assisted retrograde drilling of cadaveric OCD lesions of the knee and talus and compared with the gold standard fluoroscopy-guided retrograde drilling procedure in a controlled laboratory study setup. The novel method considerably improves on the standard operating procedure in terms of safety, operation time, and radiation exposure and will be available for further surgical indications.