When you need joint replacement surgery, you frequently hear advice that the skill of your surgeon is key to a successful procedure. You might also hear about robot-assisted joint replacements, which could give you the impression that a surgeon’s skill isn’t as critical as it once was.
This comes from misconceptions about the role of the robot. As a relatively new surgical technique, robotic assistance isn’t well understood by the general public. Those who imagine banks of computer controlled machines hovering over and performing the surgery have entirely the wrong idea.
At Southern Westchester Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, we specialize in total joint replacement using robotic assistance when possible. Here, we give you insight into just what happens during robot-assisted joint replacement surgery: It’s not as machine-controlled as you might think, and you’ll love the advantages robotic assistance brings.
Joints need replacing when cartilage and other soft tissue breaks down and interferes with joint function. Often, patients have painful bone-on-bone contact, facilitating the need for surgical intervention.
This takes the form of artificial prosthetics to replace worn tissue in the body. For knee replacements, these prosthetics take the form of caps over the damaged bone ends, while hip replacements swap out the ball and socket bone ends with artificial replicas made of metal, ceramics, or plastics. These targets are the same between conventional surgery and robot-assisted procedures.
The primary advantage of a robot-assisted surgery platform is its ability to work precisely within three dimensions. Your surgery starts with the placement of references on your body for robotic system stability. By constantly measuring where it is in relation to the joint, the robotic system operates with an absolute precision that’s far beyond that of the human hand.
The robotic system, though, makes no decisions about how to approach your joint replacement procedure. Instead, it acts as a steady hand for your surgeon. Your surgery and its results still depend on the skill of your doctor, not a robotic program or artificial intelligence application.
With this in mind, our surgeons, Dr. David Lent and Dr. Eric Spencer, specialize in robot-assisted procedures. They know how to make the most of the precision offered by the Mako® robotic-arm assisted surgical system.
The advantages that Dr. Lent and Dr. Spencer gain from robotic precision transfer to you in a series of benefits that make your joint replacement a step up from traditional techniques.
One of the biggest advantages of the precision of robotic assistance is the prevention of damage to healthy tissue around the location of the surgery. In the days when open surgery was the only choice, this often meant damage to muscles cut to make room for the surgeon’s tools and hands to complete the work.
This is now minimized with robotic assistance. Many patients go home the day of their procedure.
Recovery is also faster due to this precision. You can bear weight on your replacement joint immediately after surgery, and mobility equals speedy recovery. The accuracy of the robotic system assures the best, custom fit that could last longer than joint replacements done the traditional way.
When you’re facing joint replacement, choose the experts at Southern Westchester Orthopedics & Sports Medicine. Request an appointment at the nearest of our three locations, by phone or through our online link. Robot-assisted joint replacement is emerging as a new standard of care. Book your consultation now.
