Robotics

Spine surgery is well-positioned to benefit from robotics, which, when paired with next-generation navigation technologies, has the potential to augment the skills of spine surgeons to improve patient safety and outcomes and reduce complications and costs.

Mercy Health's St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo, Ohio, added the Mazor X Stealth robot, the hospital said in a March 21 news release. 

SpineGuard's first patent application for its dynamic surgical guidance technology was allowed by the U.S. patent and trademark office.

Mitchell Garden, MD, of Torrington, Conn.-based Charlotte Hungerford Hospital, marked 100 spine surgeries with the ExcelsiusGPS robot.

Ronald Hillock, MD, performed the first total knee replacement with a second-generation robot at Centennial Hills Hospital Medical Center in Las Vegas.

An orthopedic surgeon at Meeker-based Colorado Advanced Orthopedics, Sports Medicine and Spine at Pioneers Medical Center has reported positive outcomes using a joint replacement robot.

Medical devicemaker Medtronic named Mike Marinaro its operating unit president for surgical robotics, the company said March 17.

DOCS Health, a 21-physician group in Beverly Hills, Calif., is one of the few practices in the world to offer spine surgery with two robots: Medtronic's Mazor X and Globus Medical's ExcelsiusGPS.

Thirty years from now, every operating room could have a robot for spine surgeries or joint replacements. Robotics has been the buzz word in spine surgery for years, but most surgeons agree the technology is incomplete. That said, what's next…

Accelus' LineSider spine system was used with the devicemaker's Remi robotic system for the first time in December.