Robotics in Joint Replacement Surgery

Today, the total knee replacement (TKR) is considered as one of the most successful orthopedics surgeries. The effective long-term pain relief, deformity correction, and restoration of function that it provides have resulted in a large number of these procedures being performed worldwide. It has been observed that 15-20% of patients are not satisfied even after successful TKR surgery. Various attempts such as careful patient selection, pre-operative education, optimization of patients before the surgery, expeditious and precise surgery, aggressive pain control, early return to home, and rehabilitation have been made to improve outcomes and satisfaction among patients. There are also attempts at designing newer implants and introducing smart technology like navigation and Robotics to improve the precision of surgery. In this letter, we look at the pros and cons of the rapid introduction of Robotics in the practice of total knee arthroplasty.