Medical robotics for musculoskeletal surgery

Abstract

Bony structure has low shape deformity comparing to soft tissue. This fact has been made many trials of developing a robotic system for musculoskeletal surgery. ROBODOC was firstly used on human for total hip replacement in 1992 and was commercialized at 1994. It provides fully-automated surgery and has showed improved surgical precision. However, its usage was declined due to safety concerns. Trends have been changed to semi-automatic, a small size, and a bone-mountable robotic system. Nowadays, surgeons have some options on robotic surgery for total hip replacement, total knee replacement, unicompartmental knee replacement, and spine surgery. On the other hand there is not a commercialized robotic system for fracture surgery despite surgeon’s strong request. They want to increase precision in fracture-reduction and reduce a radiation exposure and fatigue with a robotic system. Several research groups including our group have developed robotic systems for this purpose. This chapter will introduce clinical facts and opinions about commercialized robotic systems, such as ROBODOC, RIO, and MAZOR. Robotic systems for fracture surgery under developing will be also introduced and some highlight data will be shared.