Comparison

AO Surgery Reference vs LENS Connected Tower App

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

AO Surgery Reference

Access a comprehensive online repository of surgical knowledge for fracture management. It provides detailed guidance on diagnosis, treatment, and aftercare for numerous fracture types, supported by extensive illustrations and expert review.

Highlights
  • 353 fracture types covered
  • 172 surgical approaches
  • 1222 surgical procedures
  • Over 30,000 illustrations
  • Feline, canine, and equine fracture care
  • Powerful search function
Features
Read full description

QUICK ONLINE REFERENCE IN CLINICAL LIFE Gain easy access to the award-winning AO Surgery Reference. AO Surgery Reference is an online repository for surgical knowledge. It describes the complete surgical management process from diagnosis to aftercare for all fractures of a given anatomical region, and also assembles relevant material that the AO has published before. It gives access to:   • aid in surgical decision making for 353 fracture types • 172 approaches • 1222 surgical procedures • all richly illustrated with more than 30'000 Illustrations and much more. To ensure the quality of the content, it is authored, edited, and peer reviewed by experienced AO Faculty from all over the world, some of which are also well-known textbook authors/editors. This is a relaunch of the AO Surgery Reference app utilizing the same responsive user interface that was released February 2020. The highlights are: • Consistent navigational logic and user experience on all screen sizes • Inclusion of feline, canine, and equine fracture care • Combination of Preparation – Approach – Reduction and Fixation – Aftercare into one step called treatment. • Introduction of a powerful search function, allowing simplifications of the user interface as it replaces previous shortcuts.

About

LENS Connected Tower App

Control LENS HD/4K cameras and surgical equipment remotely. Capture, annotate, and generate custom PDF reports of surgical images and videos. Enables operation outside the sterile field.

Highlights
  • Remote camera control
  • Surgical equipment control
  • Image and video storage
  • Voice, text, drawing annotations
  • Custom PDF report generation
  • Print and email reports
Features
Read full description

LENS Connected Tower App provides remote control of settings the LENS HD or LENS 4K camera settings as well as DYONICS◊ Power II, WEREWOLF◊ Coblation and DOUBLEFLO◊ Pump outside the sterile field, including: • View of settings on the arthroscopic display (optional) • Storage of surgical images and video • Create voice, text or drawing annotations • Generate customized .pdf reports • Print and email reports For best experience, please ensure to enable Location Services (General Settings | Privacy) on iPadOS 13 and above.

Screenshots

AO Surgery Reference4 screens

Verdict

The call

AO Surgery Reference and LENS Connected Tower App both sit at 4.4 stars, but that hides the real split: 86% of AO Surgery Reference's written reviews are positive against 0% of LENS Connected Tower App's. AO Surgery Reference also leads on device support (3 vs 1). LENS Connected Tower App's advantage is iOS requirement (11.0 vs 13.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

LENS Connected Tower App holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 14 and 5 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 86% of AO Surgery Reference's written reviews are positive against 0% of LENS Connected Tower App's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

AO Surgery Reference ships an update every 6 months, LENS Connected Tower App every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
AO Surgery Reference versus LENS Connected Tower App: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAO Surgery ReferenceLENS Connected Tower App
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (14 ratings)4.6 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews85.8% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings14 — better5
Update frequencyEvery 6 months — betterEvery 7 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPad
Requires iOS13.011.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB252 MB
Age rating17+12+
DeveloperAO FoundationSmith & Nephew

Customer experience

AO Surgery Reference

All ratings14 ratings
Positive85.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative14.3%
Written reviews113 reviews
Positive85.8%
Neutral3.5%
Negative10.6%

LENS Connected Tower App

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

In-app purchases

None

AO Surgery Reference

No in-app purchases

None

LENS Connected Tower App

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is AO Surgery Reference free?
AO Surgery Reference is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is LENS Connected Tower App free?
LENS Connected Tower App is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, AO Surgery Reference or LENS Connected Tower App?
LENS Connected Tower App is rated higher. AO Surgery Reference averages 4.4 out of 5 from 14 ratings, while LENS Connected Tower App averages 4.6 from 5 ratings.
Do AO Surgery Reference or LENS Connected Tower App have ads?
Neither AO Surgery Reference nor LENS Connected Tower App shows ads.
Which is updated more often, AO Surgery Reference or LENS Connected Tower App?
AO Surgery Reference ships an update every 6 months, and LENS Connected Tower App every 7 months. Most recently, AO Surgery Reference was updated on October 23, 2026 and LENS Connected Tower App on October 24, 2026.

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