News Article

     Amber Dance is the author of "Orthopedic Surgery With Robotics Offers a Surer Fit," found on the Los Angeles Times website. An orthopedic surgeon, doctor William Bargar invented the bone-drilling Robodoc, which excavates bones to make room for hip and knee replacements. It and another surgical tool, Robotic Arm Interactive Orthopedic (RIO), are designed to minimize human error and turn surgical art into operating-room engineering. For a hip or knee replacement to be comfortable and useful, the implant must fit precisely into the bone. During hip surgery, for example, surgeons hammer down on a small-to-large series of cutting tools called broaches. That force can cause fractures. If a surgeon makes a hole at the top of a leg bone that is not a perfect fit for the hip implant, it may cause pain or make the person's leg longer. Poor fit in the leg bone happens in 10% to 20% of hip replacement surgeries. Robots can help eliminate those ill-fitting implants and give more people good results with their new joints.
     RIO is a $1.3 million robotic arm that helps the doctor drill precisely the right cavity. Surgeons have been using the device to perform more than 8,000 partial knee replacements at 86 locations across the county since 2006, and the company began offering a hip-socket attachment in September. The surgeon uses a CT scan to decide ahead of time where the implant will go, then uploads that plan to the one-armed robot. When it comes to shape the bone, the surgeon guides the robot's drill by hand, but when it gets close to the edge of the planned cavity, the robot offers some resistance and will not let the doctor cut beyond the planned space. While RIO is designed to assist the surgeon, the Robodoc works on its own. It follows a pre-set program to drill a precise cavity from an implant while the surgeon stands by to observe and move muscle or other tissue out of the robot's way. This is a big achievement in the medical field which will definitely help people to have better replacements and therefore become healthier.