'This truly is x-ray vision': Sherman neurosurgeon using augmented reality system for spinal procedures

Most of us have dreamed about having x-ray vision at one time or another.

For a surgeon at Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin, that dream has sort of come true, thanks to the technology of an Arlington Heights company.

Sherman is one of only four hospitals in the state to have the xvision Spine System, an augmented reality surgical guidance system that allows surgeons to visualize the 3-D spinal anatomy of patients as if they had x-ray vision.

Dr. Richard Broderick, a neurosurgeon at the hospital, started using the AR navigation system this month.

“It allows me to put a screw into a patient's spine without being able to see the actual bone,” he said. “This truly is, if you want to call it that, x-ray vision,” he said.

“I can't actually see the spine with my eyes,” Broderick said. “I can see the spine virtually, and it allows me to get the screws in the right spot.”

Twenty years ago, when Broderick needed to place a screw in a patient suffering from sciatica, ruptured discs or fractured spines, he would make a 10- to 12-inch incision in the center of the patient's back. Then he would cut all the fat and muscle off the bone.

Then they could look at the bone and see where the screw needed to be placed.

Broderick said that surgeons who are good at it could insert the screw accurately about nine out of 10 times.

About a decade ago, companies started making equipment that allowed surgeons to do the same invasive procedure with the help of computer guidance.

Still, the procedure required a five- to 10-day hospital stay and three to four months of recovery time before patients could return to work.

Broderick said the percutaneous placement of the screws using the xvision system, which is minimally invasive, has cut that to an overnight hospital stay with six to eight weeks of recovery.

“From a patient recovery standpoint, it's a huge difference,” he said.

The xvision Spine System consists of a transparent near-eye-display headset that accurately determines the position of the surgical tools in real-time, while a virtual trajectory is then superimposed on the patient's CT data. The 3D navigation data is then projected onto the surgeon's retina using the headset, allowing the doctor to simultaneously look at the patient and see the navigation data without averting eyes to a remote screen during the procedure.

Augmedics, an Arlington Heights-based company, has been developing the product since 2014. It received FDA approval in 2019 and was first used at Johns Hopkins University in June 2020.

Kevin Sukowicz, clinical sales manager for Augmedics, said surgeons have performed about 1,000 procedures with the system.

“We're the first to be FDA approved for augmented reality spine navigation, and we are currently the only ones,” he said.

The Augmedics approach involved putting a camera on the headset, whereas other surgical navigation systems usually have a large camera at the end of the bed.

“We're moving it that much closer to the patient, which improves accuracy,” Sukowicz said.

There are currently 65 surgeon users and 35 devices in the United States. Each system costs about $200,000. Sukowicz said comparable products such as surgical robots generally are closer to $1 million.

Broderick has done a few surgeries with the new system at Sherman. He said a patient who came in for his first post-op visit was feeling so good within a week that he wanted to go back to work.

“That is just unheard of,” Broderick said. “Doing it the old-fashioned way, he would be barely walking.

“This is the biggest and most important advance of all the advances I've seen in my career for patient care.”