Jan 31 2011
The Legacy Meridian Park Medical Center located in Tualatin, Oregon, declared pioneering the MAKOplasty, a surgery that offers minimal intrusive partial knee resurfacing.
This procedure can treat primary to middle-level osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee. The operation performed by the RIO Robotic Arm Interactive Orthopedic system provides precise and reliable solutions.
Osteoarthritis is a form of arthritis causing disability to patients across the world, says the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. The surgery will help patients to lead active lives without having to lose much of their knee function. It helps surgeons replace the damaged portion of the bone with an implant without having to harm the surrounding bone or tissue. The robot is guided by the surgeon and helps to align the mended joint for flexibility of movement after the operation.
It reduces the time the patient needs to stay in hospital thus reducing costs, with only a tiny cut needing to be made leading to less blood loss. This helps the patient return to a normal lifestyle within a few weeks of the surgery. The system has a pre-surgical map explaining the procedure, giving details of how to prepare the knee for surgery, where to place the implant and so on with a CT scan of the knee. It offers a 3SD image of the procedure during operation, showing the operable area in relation to the map created earlier. The robotic arm relays tactile, audio and visual data, thus ensuring quick, precise and flawless implant placement.
Source: http://www.legacyhealth.org/