Improved Accuracy of Cervical Spinal Surgery With Robot-Assisted Screw Insertion: A Prospective, Randomized, Controlled Study

Study Design. Prospective, randomized, controlled trial. Objective. To compare robot-assisted and conventional implantation techniques by evaluating the accuracy and safety of implanting screws in cervical vertebrae. Summary of Background Data. Cervical spinal surgery is difficult and dangerous as screw misplacement might lead not only to decreased stability but also neurological, vascular, and visceral injuries. A new robot-assisted surgical procedure has been introduced to improve the accuracy of implant screw positioning. Methods. We randomly assigned 135 patients with newly diagnosed cervical spinal disease and who required screw fixation using either robot-assisted or conventional fluoroscopy-assisted cervical spinal surgery. The primary outcomes were the discrepancies between the planned trajectories and the actual screw positions. Results. Altogether, 127 patients underwent the assigned intervention (61 robot-assisted and 66 conventional fluoroscopy-assisted). The baseline characteristics including the screw types, were similar in the two groups. Altogether, 390 screws were planed and placed in the cervical vertebrae, and 94.9% were acceptable. The robot-assisted group had a better screw placement accuracy than the conventional fluoroscopy-assisted group with associated P values
Source: Spine - Category: Orthopaedics Tags: RANDOMIZED TRIAL Source Type: research