In fact, research shows that robotic-assisted surgery offers more accuracy beyond traditional methods and, therefore, extensive benefits to the patient and surgeon alike.
But would you let a mechanical surgeon perform your knee or hip replacement?
Robotic-assisted orthopaedic surgery is nothing new. Robots have been used in the operating room in America since 2009, initially only for partial knee replacements. Total hip replacement surgery using robotic assistance was introduced not long after in 2010.
Robots have been lending a helping hand to hip replacements, partial knee replacements, total knee replacements and knee dislocation surgery in Australia since 2015.
Mako surgery technology allows surgeons to use a robotic arm to conduct hip and knee replacements, giving the surgeon more accuracy to remove diseased bone and place the implant. As a result, patients are less likely to experience wearing and failure of the replacement knee or hip. In addition, accurate placement gives you a more natural knee or hip feeling after surgery.
Robotic-assisted surgery is also carried out using smaller incisions, meaning patients often experience less pain and blood loss, have a shorter stay in hospital, and have minimal scarring after the operation.
While robotic-assisted surgery as it exists today increases accuracy for a hip or knee replacement, specialists believe that with further development, robotic surgery has the potential to completely take human error out of the operating room.
Dr Stuart MacKenzie is one of the top orthopaedic surgeons in Newcastle and the Hunter and delivered the first robotic-assisted hip and knee replacements in the region in 2016.
