Doctors Perform First Ever Robot-Assisted Spinal Surgery

The use of robots in the medical field makes a lot of sense. This is because unlike humans, robots don’t tire and they can be incredibly precise, and obviously precision matters when it comes to surgical procedures because the slightest tremor in the hand of the surgeon could result in catastrophic mistakes.

This is why it doesn’t really come as a surprise to hear that doctors at the University of Pennsylvania have performed what is probably the first ever robot-assisted spinal surgery. The surgery was led by Dr. Neil Malhotra where the entire operation spanned over 2 days and more than 20 hours.

The tumor was removed from Noah Pernikoff, a 27-year old in which a car accident was what revealed the problem to him. A biopsy of the tumor revealed that it was a chordoma which is apparently extremely rare, affecting only one in 1 million people each year. The surgery itself was complicated because mistakes could result in Pernikoff being paralyzed or left without certain bodily functions.

According to Malhotra, “This would be a first ever use of a robot in this manner—a rare approach to an already rare and complex case. Our team needed to reconstruct the removed area of Pernikoff’s spine using bone and rods, and that was only the beginning.”

Tyler Lee
Categories: Medical
Tags: Health, _cold