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Study Shows Significant Advantages of Computer-Assisted Robotic
Total Knee Replacement
Released:4/12/2010 12:05 AM EDT
Source:Mercy Medical Center
Newswise - A study of 1,000 consecutive Computer-Assisted Robotic
Total Knee Replacements performed over a five year period at Mercy
Medical Center in Rockville Centre, NY demonstrates that the
computer-assisted procedures result in far better leg alignment,
much less likelihood of complicating infection, and a far lower
early failure rate than surgeries performed using conventional
techniques.
The key factor in successful total knee replacement is precise
placement of the artificial joint so that the center of the
patient???s hip and knee lines up within three degrees of the
patient???s ankle. Using conventional techniques, the best surgeons
achieve alignment within three degrees 50 to 80 percent of the time.
At Mercy Medical Center, alignment within three degrees was achieved
in all (100%) of the 1,000 computer-assisted robotic procedures
performed between February, 2005 and January, 2010. Final
post-surgical alignment averaged just under one degree (0.8).
Typically, the failure rate for knee replacements is three to eight
percent per year, and one half of early knee replacement failures,
those occurring less than two years after surgery, are attributed to
misalignment, instability and aseptic loosening. These typically
require a second more difficult and often less successful operation
called a revision total knee replacement.
At Mercy Medical Center, there were no early failures and no
revision operations secondary to misalignment, instability or
aseptic loosening in the first 1,000 consecutive computer-assisted
robotic total knee replacement patients over the first five years of
the study.
Jan Koenig, MD, Director of Orthopedic Surgery at Mercy Medical
Center, presented the findings on March 10, 2010 to a group of over
200 international orthopedic surgeons at the Annual Meeting of the
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) in New Orleans. His
presentation, The Evolution of Computer-Assisted Total Knee
Replacement (CAS-TKR) Past, Present and Future, was a featured part
of Medacta Orthopedics Scientific presentations.
It is estimated that as many as 500,000 total knee replacement
surgeries currently are performed in the United States each year,
with that number projected to increase to more than 4 million
annually as the population ages.
Conventional vs. Robotic Knee Replacement
In conventional knee-replacement procedures, a long rod is
invasively inserted the length of the femur (the bone above the
knee) to determine proper alignment of the artificial joint, and
surgeons must drill holes in the bones to position cutting tools.
Robotic cutting devices that are positioned mechanically with
computer assistance eliminate all that, making the procedure truly
minimally-invasive and reducing the risk of infection and emboli
while maintaining the highest level of accuracy. Dr. Koenig, who is
President and Co-founder of Orthopaedic Excellence of Long Island,
noted that the infection rate in conventional total knee replacement
procedures is reported at one to five percent, but among the 1,000
patients at Mercy there were only two patients with infections for a
rate of only two-tenths of one percent (0.2%).
At the present time, Mercy Medical Center has the longest
consecutive experience with computer assisted robotic total knee
replacement in the country, and is the only hospital in New York
State routinely performing computer-assisted robotic total knee
replacements. The procedures are performed using a system called the
PiGalileoTM, developed and manufactured in Switzerland by PLUS
Orthopedics.
Dr. Koenig and his team have been diligently working on the next
generations of computer assisted and robotic surgery that will be
available to the public in the near future. Because of cutting-edge
technology like robotic knee replacement, Mercy Medical Center has
consistently been ranked among the top hospitals in the country for
Joint Replacement Surgery and has been ranked as the best hospital
on Long Island for Joint Replacement Surgery in 2010 by HealthGrades??,
the nation???s leading independent healthcare ratings company.
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