Smith+Nephew's big bet on robotic knee surgery — Insights from the program's director

Robotics

Smith+Nephew entered the orthopedic robotic surgery space with its Cori robotic knee surgery system in mid-2020. Sara Schneider, Smith+Nephew's director of robotics program management, spoke to Medical Device & Outsourcing about the company's approach to robotics.

The Cori robotic system differs from competing systems because it's smaller, doesn't rely on preoperative imaging and includes a hand-held tool surgeons can use with their own established techniques.

"The way that we described this very simplistically is that you could almost perform this surgery with your eyes closed," Ms. Schneider said.

Ms. Schneider said the company made its robot small because "there's more flexibility in the approach when you have a hand-held piece that's not anchored into this mammoth piece of equipment."

The Cori system forgoes preoperative imaging and instead relies on reflective discs that bounce infrared light to cameras equipped within the tool to serve as a tracker. Once the discs are placed, the tool scans the surface of the bone that needs to be removed. The tool then recognizes the parameters of the cutting area and shuts off when outside of those parameters.

"As long as the surgeon is bringing it close enough, the system will decide, 'Am I going on or off?'" Ms. Schneider said.

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