Robotic Surgery for Total Knee and Total Hip Prosthesis

What is Robotic Surgery in Total Knee and Total Hip Prosthesis?

Robotic surgery in total knee and total hip replacement is a technique in which robotic systems are used in the planning and execution of surgical procedures. This technology allows surgeons to perform more precise and personalized interventions, optimizing the prosthesis placement process by better evaluating the patient's anatomical structure. Robotic surgery can help patients relax after surgery by providing advantages such as more accurate positioning, less tissue damage and faster recovery in total knee and total hip replacement surgeries.

Liv Hospital Robotic Surgery for Total Knee and Total Hip Prosthesis

Robotic surgery Makoplasty, used in Liv Hospital knee and hip surgery, offers easier, more painless, more successful and more reliable solutions. Thanks to the space technology robotic surgery used by Liv Hospital, the most suitable and most anatomical prosthesis can be applied to the knee and hip. The prosthesis applied with robotic surgery technology provides many advantages to the patient.

Ideal Result with Robotic Orthopedics

Computer-assisted surgery forms the basis of the robotic orthopedic interventions we use today. The main purpose is to create a virtual 3D model of the patient using MRI or computed tomography, and to plan and even perform the intervention using this model. Thus, it is possible to offer the ideal result to the patient with ideal planning before the intervention.

With Robotic Orthopedics the Patient Returns to Daily Life in a Shorter Time

After knee and hip arthroplasty operations, postoperative rehabilitation treatment is required so that the patient can return to daily life activities more quickly and healthily and quickly regain functions such as walking, climbing stairs, and driving.

What are the Advantages of Robotic Surgery in Knee and Hip Replacement?

It is a surgical robot system developed for joint replacement surgeries. It consists of a robotic arm connected to a computer. Robotic surgery is designed to help surgeons provide patients with a personalized surgical experience based on their specific diagnosis and anatomy.

Higher Satisfaction with MAKOplasty Method

The MAKOplasty method started to be used with partial knee replacement in 2007, followed by total hip replacement in 2011 and total knee replacement in 2016. It is seen as the greatest advancement in both surgery planning and accuracy and precision in the placement of prosthetic parts since 1968, when total knee prosthesis began to be implemented in the world. Two of the most important factors that determine the success of arthroplasty surgeries are determining the appropriate prosthesis size for the individual and placing the prosthesis fully anatomically. With the MAKOplasty method, the surgeon can select the prosthesis of the appropriate size for his patient before the surgery and place this prosthesis in the most correct way during the surgery. These features, which increase prosthesis survival in the long term, are also supported by studies that increase patient satisfaction in the early postoperative period compared to the traditional method.

How to Measure with Robotic Arm During Robotic Surgery?

A very important advantage of operations performed with the MAKOplasty method is the balance and length data taken live during the surgery. During the surgery, the surgeon can accurately perform ligament balance in knee prosthesis and leg length equalization in hip prosthesis with robotic measurements.

Planning Before MAKOplasty Method

The first step is patient-specific surgical planning. Before surgery, a computed tomography scan is performed to develop a three-dimensional virtual model of your knee or hip joint. Your doctor uses the results to evaluate your bone structure, severity of disease, joint alignment, and surrounding bone and soft tissue. MAKOplasty engineers work with your surgeon and prepare the surgical plan by determining the most appropriate size, placement and alignment of your prosthesis with a personalized planning based on tomography slices. In other words, your surgery is completed virtually before the operation.

How is Robotic Knee Surgery Performed?

The starting point of the Makoplasty robot is partial knee replacement surgery. In order for these types of prostheses to function properly, they must fully adapt to the area where they will be placed in a three-dimensional plane. This is impossible to achieve with two-dimensional incisions made in standard practice. With the robotic method, which prepares the area where the prosthesis will be placed by precisely carving it, rather than cutting it, the prosthesis is positioned in full compliance with the bone. In traditional knee prosthesis surgeries, standard incision blocks are used as guides for the placement of prosthetic parts. These blocks are placed on the bone by the surgeon, taking into account some anatomical reference points. Even a few degrees of error during this process may prevent full harmony in the placement of the prosthetic parts. As a result, the intended natural joint movement cannot be achieved, and postoperative dissatisfaction, premature wear and loosening problems may occur.

In the MAKOplasty method, traditional blocks are not used in the incisions to place the prosthetic parts. The robotic arm allows your surgeon to make these incisions without error. It is of great importance that the ligament structure is balanced in the natural movement of the knee joint. In knee prosthesis surgery, it is of great importance to ensure complete ligament balance as well as the placement of the prosthesis. During robotic prosthetic surgeries, Mako transmits real-time data to your surgeon. With the help of this data, your surgeon can continuously evaluate the movement and tension of your new joint during surgery and, if desired, adjust your surgical plan to achieve the perfect result. In this way, complaints such as balance problems, feeling of looseness and clicking that may occur after the surgery are prevented.

Recently, a scientific study conducted on the comparison of MAKOplasty® robot-assisted total knee prosthesis and traditional total knee prosthesis showed that robotic prostheses have four times more precise average cutting and three times more accurate implant placement.

Hip Replacement Surgery

Hip prosthesis; It consists of four parts: the part inside the femur called the 'femoral stem', the head part adapted to this part, the part located in the pelvis called the acetebular part, and the interface called 'liner' between the head and the acetebular part. In order for this four-piece system to work properly, the pieces must be placed at ideal angles. While positioning the femoral part during surgery is relatively easy, the acetabular part, which requires three-dimensional planning, challenges surgeons. Mistakes made in this part may cause premature wear of the prosthesis and may also cause the hip to dislocate.

Thanks to the Makoplasty robot, prosthetic parts can be placed into the bone at the required angles without any errors. Just like in the knee, we determine the most suitable prosthesis size for the person with the planning we make through pre-operative tomography and this prosthesis determined during the surgery is used. The perfect fit of the prosthesis, which is placed on the bone at the most appropriate angle, eliminates the problem of dislocation.

What Awaits the Patient After Robotic Prosthesis Surgery?

On the same day after robotic prosthesis surgery, our physiotherapists, accompanied by your doctors, help our patients stand up and take their first steps. With the help of a routinely used epidural catheter, the postoperative process is completed with minimal pain. With a fast and effective rehabilitation program, patients who usually stay in the hospital for a few days have the ability to get out of bed, go to the toilet and walk around the house without support when going home.

Early Recovery After MAKOplasty

Minimally invasive surgery; It means that the surgery is performed through smaller incisions, that is, with less damage to normal tissues. Thus, patients have less pain after surgery and can be mobilized more easily. The Makoplasty method allows the placement of prostheses through smaller incisions than standard surgeries. Since there is less damage to normal tissues, the healing time is shorter. Patients who experience less pain after surgery naturally use less painkillers and their kidney and liver functions are preserved. Hospital stay times are shortened and the risk of undesirable conditions such as infection is thus reduced. Patients can return to their active lives in a shorter time.

Who Are the Best Candidates for MAKOplasty Total Knee and Hip Replacement?

• Wear in the joint cartilages, deformity in the knee, often the legs turning inwards and taking the shape of an 'O'
• Pain inside the hip or knee joint and under or outside the kneecap, especially with activity, night pain and deterioration in sleep quality
• Stiffness and limitation in joint movements, inability to fully open and close the knee
• Gait disorder, shortening of healthy and pain-free walking distance, loss of balance
• Complaints do not respond to nonsurgical treatments such as rest, weight loss, physical therapy, and anti-inflammatory medications

What is the Lifespan of Prostheses Made with the MAKOplasty Method?

The most important factor that determines the life of the prosthesis after prosthesis surgeries is wear. The body's natural response to wear particles that form over time causes loss in the bone surrounding the prosthesis and loosening of the prosthesis. The more particles formed, the greater the risk of loosening.

The two main ways to reduce wear are to use high-tech quality materials and to place these materials to achieve the perfect fit. The closer we provide a prosthesis placement to the natural joint structure, the less friction will decrease. Thus, the wear time and naturally the life of the prosthesis is extended.

MAKOplasty technology offers our patients the longest-lasting prostheses available, ensuring perfect fit and guaranteeing prosthesis quality.

What Are the Advantages of the MAKOplasty Method?

• Determining the most appropriate prosthesis size and placement with pre-operative planning
• Completing bone cuts without using traditional incision blocks during surgery without any errors.
• Ensuring perfect joint balance, which is very important for knee replacement surgery, with live data during surgery
• Joint structure that performs better and longer thanks to the perfect fit achieved
• Full restoration of the natural range of motion in the knee and hip
• Maximum protection of healthy bones and tissues
• Shorter hospital stay and faster rehabilitation after surgery
• Faster recovery and return to active life