A1068. WIRELESS SIGNAL PROPAGATION IN THE OPERATING ROOM AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON SURGICAL NAVIGATION, DIGITAL COMMUNICATION, AND SMART SURGICAL TOOLS

Abstract

Wireless technologies and their use in the medical field have become much more widespread and important in the last decade. Whether it is a doctor carrying a personal digital assistant, the hospital WLAN, RFID asset tracking systems, telemetry-based Point-of-Care systems, or implanted wireless devices, wireless systems play an important role in the underlying technologies utilized by a hospital. Conversely, wireless technologies are not widely used in computer assisted orthopaedic surgery (CAOS), mainly due to their poor performance in the operating room (OR). The large amount of metallic interference found in the OR can severely degrade wireless signals. This can cause failure in wireless digital communication and large errors in 3-D tracking when using wireless signals for 3-D positioning.

We have developed a wireless positioning system based on ultra wideband (UWB) technology which achieves mm-range 3-D dynamic accuracy and can be used for intraoperative tracking in CAOS systems. This system can be used to track smart surgical tools in the OR and also for registration of bones and conventional (non-smart) surgical tools. UWB technology also has the potential for high data rate digital communication. The potential of highly accurate 3-D tracking combined with high data rate digital communication make UWB an attractive wireless technology for future CAOS systems and provides a strong backbone for smart surgical tools.

We have run various experiments with our UWB system in an OR both during orthopaedic surgeries and when the OR was empty. We have obtained time domain and frequency domain data, which has been analyzed to show the effects of transmitting UWB wireless signals in the OR. The implications of the OR environment on 3-D positioning accuracy and also high data rate digital communication will be presented. The final conclusions show the potential of UWB for wireless smart surgical tools which can be tracked in real-time with mm-range and even sub-mm range 3-D accuracy.