An example physical tracking tool includes a main body defining a channel configured to receive a tool, the channel having a longitudinal axis; and one or more physical tracking features attached to the main body, each physical tracking feature comprising a plurality of planar faces, each planar face of the plurality of planar faces including different a graphical pattern of a plurality of graphical patterns.

Orthopedic implants, systems, instruments, and methods. A bi-portal lumbar interbody fusion system may include an expandable interbody implant and minimally invasive pedicle-based intradiscal fixation implants. The interbody and intradiscal implants may be installed with intelligent instrumentation capable of repeatably providing precision placement of the implants. The bi-portal system may be robotically-enabled to guide the instruments and implants along desired access trajectories to the surgical area.

Apparatus, systems, and methods are provided for localization of a needle within a patient's body using markers. In an exemplary embodiment, a probe includes a distal end for placement against a surface of the region and one or more antennas for transmitting electromagnetic signals into and receiving reflected signals from the region. A processor processes the modulated reflected signals at one or more of the surface locations to determine marker locations along the needle and generate a three-dimensional model of the body region and needle.

A computer-implemented method plans a position of a tracking reference device for referencing a position in a medical environment. The method includes a determination of avoidance regions in which a tracking reference device should not be placed so as to safeguard proper tracking of the tracking reference device and/or an instrument tracking reference device which is attached to a medical instrument. The avoidance region is a region lying, from the point of view of a tracking device for tracking the tracking reference device, in the shadow of an envelope surrounding at least one medical instrument. Additionally or alternatively, an avoidance region may lie in between the position of the tracking device and the envelope to avoid a shadowing, by the tracking reference device, of an instrument tracking reference device attached to the medical instrument. Information describing the position of the at least one avoidance region is displayed to a user, and also information about the position of a region which is suitable for placement of the tracking reference device can be displayed to the user.

Optical tracking of objects in arthroscopic surgery. Examples comprise a resection instrument system including: a handpiece; a mechanical resection device comprising a stationary outer hub, an elongate outer tube coupled to and extending away from the stationary outer hub, and a cutter disposed at a distal end of the elongate shaft, the stationary outer hub coupled to the handpiece; a fiducial array; and a sleeve connector. The sleeve connector may include: a sleeve defining a distal end, a proximal end, and a through bore, the sleeve concentrically arranged with the elongate shaft; an array connector coupled to the proximal end of the sleeve, the array connector coupled to the fiducial array.

A surgical assembly for kinematically coupling two surgical components is provided. The surgical assembly includes a first surgical component having a receiver, which defines a cavity and has a plurality of constraint surfaces accessible in the cavity. The surgical assembly further includes second surgical component having a key, which has a triplicity of kinematic elements to repeatably position the key in the receiver. The surgical assembly further includes a preloading mechanism having a load member arranged to secure the key in the receiver such that the kinematic elements contact the receiver at the plurality of constraint surfaces such that the key is kinematically constrained to the receiver by being constrained by six points of contact with the receiver.

Dental implants including radiopaque markers provided therein or thereon. The implant may also include customizable length characteristics. For example, a kit may include implants with different diameters (e.g., 3 diameters), where all of the implants are of a single (e.g., long) length. The appropriate diameter implant may be selected from the kit by the practitioner, and the long length implant may be cut (e.g., with a dental drill) to the appropriate length needed. The implants include radiopaque markers on or within the implant. For example, three series of markers may be provided on different “faces” of the implant, so that the three series of markers serve as reference points when scanning, allowing triangulation of the exact position of the implant in relation to the surrounding hard and soft oral tissues.

For training for and performance of patient modeling from surface data in a medical system, a progressive multi-task model is used. Different tasks for scanning are provided, such as landmark estimation and patient pose estimation. One or more features learned for one task are used as fixed or constant features in the other task. This progressive approach based on shared features increases efficiency while avoiding reductions in accuracy for any given task.

In one embodiment, a method of implanting a stimulation lead to stimulate a dorsal root ganglion (DRG) of a patient, comprises: placing a distal portion of the stimulation lead within an implant tool; accessing the epidural space of the patient with the distal end of the implant tool; contacting a surface of a pedicle of the patient with a distal tip of the implant tool above a foramen leading to a target DRG; after contacting the surface of the pedicle with the distal tip, advancing the stimulation lead from a side port of the implant tool, wherein the side port is located proximal to the distal tip of the implant tool; advancing the stimulation lead through the foramen to position one or more electrodes of the stimulation lead adjacent to the target DRG; and providing electrical stimulation to the target DRG to stimulate the target DRG using one or more electrodes of the stimulation lead.

A surgical instrument system (1) for treatment of an anatomical structure (3, 5) comprises an instrument (8) and/or a patient specific instrument (2, 4) for performing the treatment on the anatomical structure. The instrument (8) and/or the patient specific instrument (2, 4) comprises an integrated measurement system (20, 40, 80) for tracking the instrument (8) and/or the patient specific instrument (2, 4) relative to the anatomical structure (3, 5), whereby the integrated measurement system comprises a tracking system (6, 10), which comprises a shadow imaging tracking system.