Surgical Navigation Systems – Technological Advancements in Medicine

miller peet

Sep 28

Over the last few decades, from computers to smartphones and from single purpose to multipurpose electronic devices, technological advancements have transformed our lives in more than one way. Surgical navigation system is one of the essential technological advancements that has enhanced surgical interventions into safer and lesser invasive procedures than earlier.

Moreover, surgical navigation system works as a surgical decision making tool. Neurosurgery, stereotaxy, and medical imaging are the three key factors that has pushed the development of navigation in surgery. Neurosurgery is the surgery of the nervous system. Stereotaxy, at the same time, is a neurosurgical procedure which needs the accurate localization and targeting of intracranial patterns. Medical imaging includes 3D X-rays, CT scan, and MRI. Combination of 3D X-ray imaging and optical imaging offers surgeons with a unique AR view of the inside and outside of a patient during surgical procedures. MRI images show more soft tissue detail, while also allow visualization with respect to other risk structures. Therefore, the introduction of the MRI is considered to be a milestone towards navigation in surgery.

According to a report published by Allied Market Research, the global surgical navigation systems market size is projected to reach $1.7 billion with a significant CAGR from 2021 to 2030. North America is currently holding the highest market share, owing to rise in consumer spending on healthcare services and a significant increase in technological advancements in healthcare infrastructure. The Asia-Pacific region, on the other hand, is expected to grow at the fastest rate, attributed to large number of patient population, surge in elderly population, increase in prevalence of orthopedic disorders, improvement in healthcare infrastructure, growth of medical tourism, presence of key market players in the region.

Increases adoption of minimally invasive surgical procedures, surge in incidence & prevalence of neurological disorders, technological advancements, rapidly increasing aging population, and subsequent rise in the number of orthopedic & ENT disorders drive the growth of the surgical navigation systems market.

ENT navigation system segment is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR, attributed to the increase in prevalence of ENT-related disorders and rise in adoption of surgical navigation systems among ambulatory settings. Neurosurgery navigation system held the largest market share in 2015, accounting for more than two-fifths share, owing to high adoption rate of navigation systems in neurosurgical procedures.

Surgical navigation, also termed as image-guided surgery, computer-assisted intervention, and computer-assisted surgery, is an important surgical decision-making tool. It develops a precise replica in the form of images of the target anatomical structure, which are further processed to develop a 3D data set that develops precise geometrical structure of the targeted surgical area or the region to be operated.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Surgical Navigation Systems Market:

However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the growth of the global surgical navigation systems market, owing to decline in number of surgeries. The implementation of global lockdown temporarily closed all surgical centers around the world, thus resulted to a number of procedures to be postponed or cancelled, especially in the initial phase. As per report in 2020, nearly 30 million elective surgeries were cancelled or delayed because of the pandemic. Daily patient visits were also reduced considerably in order to maintain the social distancing norms. These factors altogether hampered the growth of the global surgical navigation systems market to some extent. Nevertheless, the market has a huge scope to gather exponential growth in the post pandemic.

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