New Allina Health Robot Helps Doctors with Knee, Hip Replacements
Allina Health’s Abbott Northwestern-WestHealth Surgery Center in Plymouth is now home to the newest surgical robot in the region. The Stryker Mako Robotic Assisted-Arm assists surgeons performing knee and hip replacements. It’s the only device of its kind in the greater Twin Cities area and has been in use since Aug. 31.
Dr. Bishoy Gad said during a joint replacement, the robot allows doctors to plan how to exactly cut bones so implants can fit perfectly.
“With standard instrumentation, you can’t exactly put implants where you want them. You’re kind of limited by the instruments,” explained Dr. Gad.
When implants fit perfectly, doctors won’t have to make additional cuts in the surrounding structures. Gad explained that additional cuts can cause pain and increase bleeding.
“You’ll get information for example how tight ligaments are on the inside of the knee,” said Gad. “Based on that information, the surgeon will adjust the components to adequately fit the patient.”
Stryker Mako Robot
Patients like Erin Mastro have reported having less pain, needed less narcotics and experienced a faster recovery.
“Therapy has been great,” said Mastro. “I will say my physical therapist has noticed my recovery has been so much quicker.”
The procedure also allowed Mastro to go back home on the same day of the surgery.
“I think everybody was shocked, surprised. Everybody thought for sure I would be in the hospital overnight, but it was nice to go home,” she said.
Gad added that he knows more about his patients than ever before through the new technology. Gad said he’s excited to offer this transformative tool.
“All surgeons in general are perfectionists. We want to do the absolute perfect job and the robot is just a really good tool to achieve that goal,” said Gad.
The Stryker Mako Robotic Assisted-Arm device is the 13th robot in the Allina Health system. Allina Health performs more than 4,800 robot-assisted procedures a year.
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