Purpose Quality and results of orthopedic surgery have been vastly improved by the technological advances of these last few years. Progress in surgical instruments and implants have aimed at the improvement of the surgical outcome. More recently, computer assisted surgery (CAS) has revolutionized our approach to surgery in a more comprehensive way, in an attempt to make surgery better not only for the patient but also for the operator and the whole surgical team. Of the many parts that

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... es CAS, augmented reality is one of the most promising ones. This narrative review describes current knowledge and prospects of augmented reality in orthopedic surgery. Methods A narrative review of current literature has been performed in September 2020 to find articles focused on augmented reality in orthopedic surgery in Scopus and PubMed/Medline with the following keywords: (augmented reality) AND (orthopedic). Inclusion criteria were articles published in the last 20 years, reviews, clinical and educational articles. The authors collected the data described in these articles and analyzed them to find the most relevant informations on this topic. Results 145 articles on augmented reality in surgery were found. The majority of these studies were focused on the potential use of this technology for improvements in surgical training, technique, operating time and x-rays exposures. Conclusion Augmented reality is a significant help for the practice and training of the orthopedic surgeon: it can reduce the operating time, the exposure to harmful radiation and can help improve precision and reproducibility of surgeries.