Robotic Navigation: Mounting Systems

One of the essential components of safe robotic surgery is a method of maintaining a known relationship between the patient and the robotic arm during utilization. This requires both a stable robotic arm as well as a stable position of the body, specifically the area of interest of the spine. There are several different methods of ensuring this stable and known relationship between the spine and the robotic system, commonly referred to as mounting. The first generation of robotic platforms required a frame-based rigid drill guide for k wire placement into the planned pedicle trajectory, but lacked any coupled navigational imaging. However, more recent versions have obviated the need for k wire placement and instead allow multiple instruments to be passed through the robotic arm guide including the drill, tap, and screwdriver [1, 2].