Knee replacement surgery can offer significant pain relief for many patients, especially when more conservative treatments like medication and exercise are no longer effective. It’s a major surgical treatment that needs to be performed by an experienced orthopedic surgeon.
Mako technology helps surgeons create a personalized preoperative plan to prepare the knee for an implant. To ensure the knee replacement is positioned by this plan, the surgeon uses the robotic arm in the operating room to guide it.
Precision
The Mako System allows your surgeon to create a personalized preoperative surgery plan that helps save surrounding healthy bone and ligaments while getting to the root of your knee problem. This has been proven to lead to improved recovery outcomes.
The surgical plan is then used to guide the arm during the Mako robotic-assisted procedures Charleston, SC. While this may sound like a robot replaces your surgeon, the surgeon still performs the surgery, and the robotic arm is only there to assist.
As a result, the prosthetic joint may fit more comfortably, putting less strain on your natural ligaments and bones and facilitating a quicker recovery, less discomfort, and a shorter hospital stay. This can also mean a lower risk of implant failure in the future.
Accuracy
With Mako, your surgeon creates a personalized pre-surgical plan using CT scan data from your unique anatomy. The system software programs a robotic arm to follow this plan during surgery, much like a GPS would give you directions on a road trip.
Mako’s software helps your doctor create a more accurate, patient-specific model of the knee or hip and a standard replacement joint optimized to match your specific anatomy. This lessens the mismatching that could eventually require a revision arthroplasty and cause discomfort and instability in the joint.
It can also help your doctor avoid cutting healthy bone and cartilage that could compromise recovery and ensure the knee is aligned correctly. This is linked to a decrease in postoperative pain rates, a decrease in morphine use, a reduction in hospital stays, and a quicker rate of recovery.
Speed
In many cases, Mako technology allows your surgeon to make fewer cuts, which means a faster procedure with less trauma and reduced risk of complications. In addition, your surgeon can balance ligament tension more precisely and preserve healthy bone.
The surgeon’s personalized pre-surgical 3D model is uploaded into the Mako robotic arm, which guides the surgeon during surgery and helps them stay within precise boundaries to ensure that no healthy bone or tissue is inadvertently removed. The robotic arm also enables your surgeon to insert the knee replacement implant in a way that can reduce wear on the artificial knee joint, which may increase its lifespan.
For these reasons, adult patients who undergo knee replacement surgery with Mako tend to experience a shorter hospital stay and quicker recovery than patients who undergo traditional surgery.
Reliability
In one study, the image-based Mako robotic arm-assisted total knee replacement was found to provide more accurate bone resection and limb coronal alignment compared to an imageless system (NAVIO). This may lead to less blood loss and faster recovery after surgery.
When you’re a candidate for Mako, specialized CAT scans are used to create a 3D model of your exact knee joint and surrounding anatomy. This helps your doctor formulate a personalized surgical plan that optimizes every step of your surgery.
Safety
Mako translates your CT scan data into a 3D model of your knee. This helps surgeons formulate a personalized pre-surgical plan to ensure that the knee implant fits perfectly and is aligned correctly with the ligaments.
This reduces the possibility of misalignment, which increases polyethylene wear and increases the likelihood of requiring a future knee replacement surgery. The robotic arm also helps protect healthy tissue by making fewer incisions and avoiding unnecessary damage.
Using a personalized surgical plan, your orthopedic surgeon guides the robotic arm during surgery to prepare the bone for the knee implant. The surgeon is in control, and the robotic arm does not perform surgery or make decisions independently. This means your surgeon can always change the plan during surgery as needed.
