Hip replacement is one of the most successful orthopedic procedures. The use of robotics during this procedure further improves the success rate by taking the accuracy and precision of the surgery to new heights. Some of the benefits of robotics in hip replacement surgery include:
- Patient-specific 3D planning: The robotic planning system creates a 3D computerized model of the individual patient’s hip joint. This allows the surgeon to visualize and plan the surgery to match the unique anatomy of each patient.
- Better control: The robotic arm adds to the accuracy and consistency of the surgeon’s hand. This helps improve the accuracy when cutting the femur, reaming the acetabulum, and placing the implant components. The use of robotics can reduce inaccuracies by as much as 94%, helping minimize risks of leg length discrepancies, dislocations, and other complications of conventional hip replacement.
- Staying within the safe zone: The specifications of the 3D model of the hip is loaded onto the robot, ensuring all surgical cutting and reaming instruments remain within the safe zone. This ensures that the angulation and positioning of the implant components is as close to the planned values as possible.
- Minimal injury to healthy tissue: The highly precise movements of the robotic arm allows for surgery to be performed in tight spaces and through smaller incisions, causing minimal damage to the surrounding tissues. This way the surgery can be done without cutting any of the muscles around the hip, using the minimally invasive anterior approach.
- Improved outcomes: In a large research study conducted by the American Hip Institute, the outcomes of 162 patients who underwent robot-assisted hip replacement were followed for 2 years postoperatively. These experienced the benefits of robotic hip surgery, and were more than 2x as likely to feel like their hip was a normal hip.
Of note, robotic-arm-assisted total hip replacement is not limited to any age group or type of patient. Any individual who is a good candidate for hip replacement, may benefit from this procedure.
Dr. Benjamin Domb is an orthopaedic surgeon specializing in Sports Medicine and Hip Arthroscopy. He is the Founder and Medical Director at American Hip Institute, is rated amongst the Top Doctors in the USA by the NY Times, US News & World Report, and Castle Connelly. The doctors at the American Hip Institute® have been global leaders in Hip Arthroscopy and Robotic Surgery for over a decade. While some would call this excellence, we simply call it the American Hip Institute standard.
