Andrea Novaresio

Today, surgical operations are less invasive than they were a few decades ago and, in medicine, there is a growing trend towards precision surgery. Among many technological advancements, augmented reality (AR) can be a powerful tool for improving the surgery practice through its ability to superimpose the 3D geometrical information of the pre-planned operation over the surgical field as well as medical and instrumental information gathered from operating room equipment. AR is fundamental to reach new standards in maxillofacial surgery. The surgeons will be able to not shift their focus from the patients while looking to the monitors. Osteotomies will not require physical tools to be fixed on patient bones as guides to make resections. Handling grafts and 3D models directly in the operating room will permit a fine tuning of the procedure before harvesting the implant. This article aims to study the application of AR head-mounted displays (HMD) in three operative scenarios (oncological and reconstructive surgery, orthognathic surgery, and maxillofacial trauma surgery) by the means of quantitative logic using the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) tool to determine their requirements. The article provides an evaluation of the readiness degree of HMD currently on market and highlights the lacking features.