What Is the Success Rate of Robotic Spine Surgery?

Dr. Steve Paragioudakis, MD added When comparing robotic spine surgery to traditional spinal surgery, one of the most important factors is how well you recover from your procedure. The recovery time for robotic surgery is much shorter than traditional spinal

surgeries, with most patients able to return home within 24 hours of their operation. That's a massive advantage over a more extended recovery period after traditional surgery.

In addition, a robotic procedure often allows surgeons to navigate better complex structures in the spine, such as nerves, blood vessels, and arteries. This is because the small incisions enable surgeons to see the surrounding tissue more clearly, which makes for a safer and less painful procedure.

Traditionally, surgeons would place screws in the spine 'freehand' using their judgment and feel or using many X-rays during surgery to guide them. This can lead to a significant risk of placing screws in the wrong place or in suboptimal positions, which can reduce the effectiveness of the procedure and potentially cause harm to the patient.

While a learning curve exists for MIS surgeons to become proficient with the use of robots during lumbar transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF), studies have found that over time, robotic surgery reduces operative times, blood loss, and radiation exposure compared to freehand techniques. This is most likely due to the surgeon becoming more familiar with the use of the robot and improvements in robotic technology.

Another benefit of the robot is that it can be used to perform precise decortication on the facet joints to facilitate fusion in conjunction with pedicle screw placement and an interbody graft. This allows the surgeon to avoid a bone-graft harvest and the use of the donor's bone and leads to a faster, easier, and more effective procedure.

The last important point to consider is the overall safety and efficacy of robotic spine surgery While a few rare complications can occur, the risks of robotic surgery are very similar to those of conventional or open spinal surgery. Multiple instruments have been developed to measure the patient experience, including general health surveys (SF-36, EQ-5D) and patient-reported outcome measures (ODI). Despite the relatively recent introduction of robotics

to spine surgery, patient report outcomes have remained consistently higher in the short term after robotic surgery compared to traditional techniques.