New Robotic Spine Surgery: Get Better, Faster

BALTIMORE, Jan. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Surgeons at The Johns Hopkins Hospital have for the first time used a real-time, image-guided robot to insert screws into a patient's spine, alleviating her from severe pain and improving her mobility.

"People get excited when they realize that there are new potential interventions and strategies to help them get better, faster," says Nicholas Theodore, M.D., professor of neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of the Neurosurgical Spine Center of Johns Hopkins Medicine. "We are really excited to be able to offer this to our patients."

The first patient to go through this new procedure had a spine injury from a fall at home. She agreed to the new robotic surgery, in part, because it aims to be 100 percent accurate.

Current image-guided surgical procedures require the surgeon to look back and forth between the patient and an image, which causes imperfection of screw placement. While oftentimes these placements are "good enough," it wasn't good enough for Theodore, who invented the robot and maintains a financial interest in the technology.

This new robot "marries" a CT scan of the patient with the actual patient, allowing the surgeon to point to a spot on the CT scan and tell the robot to aim for that same spot. Connected to a camera, which itself reads landmarks on the patient, the robot is able to process what the camera "sees" with the CT image in real time. The biggest fear in this type of procedure is movement?what if the patient breathes or otherwise moves slightly?but this robot can sense changes in position and adjust accordingly.

After the surgery "I felt better right away. It was amazing," said the patient in a video testimonial.

Spine surgery is used to treat conditions that include degenerative disease, spine tumors and trauma. According to a 2015 study, traffic accidents and falls are the leading cause of spinal injuries in the United Arab Emirates. 

Theodore will be a featured speaker during the Pediatrics and Orthopaedics conferences at Arab Health, in Dubai, and is available for in person interviews on Sunday, January 28^th.

Media contact: Alsy Acevedo [email protected], +1 410-446-1750.

Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM), headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, is an $8 billion integrated global health enterprise and one of the leading academic health care systems in the United States. JHM unites physicians and scientists of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with the organizations, health professionals and facilities of The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System. JHM's vision, "Together, we will deliver the promise of medicine," is supported by its mission to improve the health of the community and the world by setting the standard of excellence in medical education, research and clinical care. Diverse and inclusive, JHM educates medical students, scientists, health care professionals and the public; conducts biomedical research; and provides patient-centered medicine to prevent, diagnose and treat human illness. JHM operates six academic and community hospitals, four suburban health care and surgery centers, and 40 primary and specialty care outpatient sites under the umbrella of Johns Hopkins Community Physicians. JHM extends health care into the community and globally through Johns Hopkins Home Care Group, Johns Hopkins Medicine International and Johns Hopkins HealthCare. The Johns Hopkins Hospital, opened in 1889, has been ranked #1 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for 22 years of the survey's 28-year history. For more information about Johns Hopkins Medicine; its research, education and clinical programs; and for the latest health, science and research news, visit www.hopkinsmedicine.org.

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