Medical technology firm Stryker has announced that its SportSuite Vision app for the Apple Vision Pro was used in a hip arthroscopy at Duke Health, the first real-world procedure using the software. The milestone offers a glimpse of a niche but genuinely useful application for Apple's mixed-reality headset, which has struggled to find a mainstream consumer audience since launch and reportedly faced significant staff cuts to its development team last month.

Stryker received De Novo authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration for the software on 17 July. During the operation, surgeon Dr Chad Mather III used the headset to view orthopaedic surgery planning tools, arthroscopic images and CT scans while working within the sterile field, saying the setup let him customise the placement of clinical information to suit his workflow. While the cost and complexity of developing Vision Pro software make everyday medical use unlikely soon, the case is seen as an example of the kind of specialised, high-value scenario where the headset could prove its worth.