Trajectory guidance of hand-held surgical tools during a surgical procedure

Abstract

A surgical system for operating on a bone of a patient is described. The surgical system may include a surgical instrument that features a camera and/or an inertial measurement unit. The surgical system may further include a control system to superimpose virtual representations on a medical image based on the output of one of the camera and the inertial measurement unit. The virtual representation or an alternative virtual representation may further be based on the output of a depth sensor. In certain instances, the surgical instrument may feature a control system that is configured to determine a length of an end effector based on the signal from the camera. The disclosure may also feature a control system that obtains a plurality of 2-D X-ray images and selects one or more of the 2-D X-ray images based on one or more criterion, such as a radial distance, an image boundary, an output of a depth sensor, a relative orientation, and the like. The control system may control a display to display the selected 2-D image.