Certainly what I would expect to see in a mechanical context, and appears to be used in surgery too.

There were no episodes of outer cortical bone avulsion or any necessity for redrilling new pilot holes. These forceps provided sufficient force for ...
archfaci.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/9/2/106

pilot holes in the bone, the correct alignment has been achieved and the plate ... Fixation-based surgery is a method of planning and performing a surgical ...
www.cs.queensu.ca/mcl/pubs/2000-miccai-radius.pdf

Good bone apposition and stabilization and compression of the. bone surfaces before staple ... priate pilot holes were drilled, and the staple was ...
www.japmaonline.org/cgi/reprint/96/2/102.pdf

The positions in CT coordinates of these pilot holes are , and for fragments A and B. In surgery. Reference markers are affixed rigidly to the two bone ...
www.cisst.org/~cista/445/Homework_2004/Homework 3 - Answers...

The system provides a mechanical guide for drilling the pilot holes of distal screws ... 0.5: Computer-Aided Image-Guided Bone Fracture Surgery: Modeling, . ...
citeseer.ist.psu.edu/583119.html

Positional plagiocephaly does not require surgery — treatment can be as simple ... Once the scalp is peeled back, pilot holes are drilled through the skull. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craniosynostosis