Wireless technologies for the orthopaedics: Diagnostics and surgical applications

Wireless technologies can be used as diagnostic tools, which are of prime interest in medical applications. For example, in orthopedics an array of inertial measurement units (IMUs) combined with ultrasound sensing provides a radiation free method to monitor in-vivo motion (e.g. bones in the knee); or a network of sensors to detect abnormal motions or vibrations for remote patient monitoring (e.g. unattended monitoring of elderly patients or epileptic patients). Miniaturization of low-powered medical sensors, such as oximeter, EEG, ECG, and EMG, combined with high bandwidth wireless communication (e.g. ultra wideband) enable WSNs to be used for patient monitoring over extended periods of time. These data can be transmitted wirelessly and stored on the patient´s medical record to provide in-depth record tracking for further diagnosis. There are also intraoperative applications for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Surgical instruments embedded with Micro-Electromechanical System (MEMS) sensors provide immediate feedback about a patient´s condition to doctors during surgery including temperature, pressure, strain, or biochemical reactions. Finally, ultra-wideband combined with WSNs provides a robust platform for developing WSNs which includes accurate 3-D positioning and high data rate or low data rate digital communication with optimized performance for indoor environments which contain high amounts of multipath (e.g. metallic) interference.