Dr. Wong was recently in Antwerp, Belgium, co-chairing and presenting at the Belgium International Spine Symposium. The theme of the meeting was “The Future of Spine Surgery.”
As with many meetings in recent months, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its influence on the medical system was a popular topic. Some of the positive impacts of AI, such as better reading definition in MRI scans, were discussed. On the negative side, the use of AI in medical publishing has led to “ghosted” or made-up references in bibliographies of papers and fabricated data in some research articles.
There were several papers on the increasing role of robots to assist in placing pedicle screws for fusion cases. At present, the accuracy of a robot and that of an experienced surgeon placing the pedicle screws freehand using anatomic landmarks is about the same. However, robots can cost upwards of $1 million, so cost-effectiveness has yet to be established.
Dr. Wong gave four presentations. One was on future patient safety initiatives. The “Highly Reliable Operating Room” includes programs taken from aviation, such as “Crew Resource Management,” in which team communication is encouraged, and any member of the team in the cockpit or operating room, regardless of rank or position, can speak up about safety issues without worry about reprisal from higher authority.
Another of Dr. Wong’s talks was on “the endoscope vs. the microscope: which will prevail in the future?” The conclusion was that there will be a role for both in spine surgery. The endoscope, with its smaller field of view and only 2-D vision (no depth perception), can be used for straightforward, less severe pathologies, such as disc herniation and mild stenosis. The microscope has applications for relatively simple as well as more severe pathologies, where its wider field of view allows orientation to more landmarks, and full 3-D visualization has advantages for work around severely compressed nerves.
