“the robot is never, ever making decisions or performing incisions,” ucla health’s website assures patients. “rather, your surgeon is telling the robot what to do, and the robot allows for greater precision than the human hand on its own.”
a recent study from the hospital for special surgery in new york suggests that robotic-assisted knee replacement surgery has led to a lower complication rate in the first three months post-procedure. “the use of computer-assisted navigation and robotic assistance for total knee replacement has increased tremendously and shows no sign of slowing down,” said dr. geoffrey westrich, one of the authors of the study, which was published in the journal arthroplasty today .
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robot-assisted surgery started in the u.s. around 2000, according to cbc news . canada adopted the practice a few years later, with the approval of the da vinci surgical system , a robot that allows the surgeon to operate three or four surgical arms. in 2017 there were 31 across canada, according to the globe and mail . st. joseph’s healthcare in hamilton, ont. also has canada’s only orthopaedic surgical robot, the mako rio . its first surgery, performed on a 66-year-old man in 2019, was a knee replacement.
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not everyone is a fan, though. as the globe and mail reported in 2017, the ontario health technology advisory committee (the expert group that advises the province on the funding of health services and devices) ruled that the benefits of robot-assisted surgery weren’t significant enough to justify the cost. the ruling was a controversial one: five doctors involved were so opposed to the conclusion that they asked for their names to be removed.