Local surgeons are using new technology in robotics and augmented reality to help guide their procedures in spinal surgeries.
“Accuracy has a direct impact on safety,” said Dr. Zubair Ahammad, chairman of the neurosurgery department at Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center. “The consequences of being off are significant.”
Earlier this year, Mercy Health officials announced that St. Vincent’s is one of the first in the region to add the Mazor X Stealth Edition Robotic Guidance Platform as part of the Mercy Health — Neuroscience Institute. Recently, Glass City Orthopaedics and Consulting Orthopaedics became the first in northern Ohio to use Augmedics XVision Spine System, an augmented reality guidance program.
Doctors said the new technology allows them to perform minimally invasive procedures, which means quicker healing and less chance of infection for the patient.
The Mazor X includes a robotic arm that’s tied to software with scanned images of the patient’s anatomy loaded into the computer system, Dr. Ahammad said. What it does is guide surgeons in placing hardware, such as screws, into the spine.
“The robotic arm will basically identify for you precise locations that you can’t see directly from the surface,” he said. “Robotics adds another element to placing that fixation in the spine.”
But while the technology improves the efficiency and streamlines the process, he said it doesn’t change a surgeon’s role in performing the surgery and making complicated decisions.
“I think [the technology] will become more common because people will slowly start to see the value of it,” Dr. Ahammad said.
Computer navigation has been used in surgery for years, said Kevin Hykes, CEO and president of Augmedics, a startup company based in Chicago and Israel. But much of the current navigation systems require surgeons to turn away from the patient to look at a screen or run the risk of someone else in the operating room blocking the screen.
Augmedics developed an augmented reality headset to display all of that information on the patient’s body, Mr. Hykes said.
“It’s a radical step forward to a concept that’s been around for a little while,” he said.
Dr. Thomas Andreshak, an orthopedic surgeon with Consulting Orthopaedic Associates, said the program is almost like giving doctors X-ray vision — surgeons are able to see where to place screws without making large incisions.
“It lets us do more of a minimal exposure in the patient,” he said.
The program can’t yet be used for every spinal procedure, Dr. Andreshak said, nor does he believe it’s appropriate for every patient. But it’s a real benefit in some cases, such as where the patient has scoliosis, or a curved spine, which can make surgery more difficult.
At this point, they’ve been using it for a couple of months.
“I’m much more comfortable with it,” he said. “It’s a learning process, like everything else in medicine. It’s an art.”
First Published April 17, 2022, 5:17 p.m.
