Company officials report that surgeons at the University Medical Center, Mainz, Germany, used the Mazor Robotics Renaissance Guidance System to implant 590 screws in the spines of 118 patients from October 2011 through January 2013. Sven Kantelhardt, M.D., chief senior physician of the Neurosurgery Department said that the screws were implanted in the lumbar and lower thoracic spine with a minimally-invasive procedure using small incisions. “Ninety-nine percent of the screws were positioned as planned and expected, “he said.
Robot Used to Insert Spinal Screws
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Spinal fusion—the joining of two or more vertebra together using screws—is a widely used technique in cases of spinal congenital defects, scoliosis, spinal deformity or traumatic accidents to the spine.
PRWeb quotes Alf Giese, M.D., Director of the Neurosurgery Department as saying, “Mazor Robotics Renaissance Guidance System enables highly-precise screw placement, making spinal surgery even safer. It enables minimally invasive interventions to be performed without open surgical presentation of the spinal column structure and with the same precision as traditional procedures. Access by means of small incisions, which can be used routinely for almost all patients, is much gentler on patients than an ‘open’ intervention. Patients require less pain medication, show better wound healing and recover faster.”
Giese said that before the surgery, surgeons upload CT scans of the patient to Renaissance’s 3D planning software to create a surgical plan based on the patient’s anatomy and diagnosis. In the operating room, the X-ray images are compared with the prior CT scans until a match is achieved. The robotic system then determines where the implants or screws should be placed according to the predetermined plan and guides the surgeon to the precise trajectory. The surgeon remains in full control during the operation, he said.
PRWeb reports that, according to current studies, about half of all adult Germans see a doctor at least once in their lives with complaints of low back pain.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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