Over 900 robotic prosthetic surgery interventions have been performed from 2014 to today at San Donato in Arezzo. A milestone that the Dr. Roberto Redi, director of the Orthopedics and Traumatology Unit, Arezzo Hospitalhas achieved this thanks to robotics which allows reconstruction operations of the knee, both partial and total, and the hip.
In 2014, the Arezzo hospital was the first public hospital in central and southern Italy to equip itself with the robot. In 2023, 120 robotic prosthetic surgery interventions were performed at San Donato in Arezzo and there are numerous patients from various parts of Italy who choose it for a hip and knee prosthesis.
«We started with the partial reconstruction of the knee – explains the dr. Roberto Redi – we subsequently performed total knee and hip replacements. The advantages of robotic orthopedics are numerous for the patient. The use of the robot requires the patient to undergo a CT scan whose images are studied and processed by the robot technicians who send us the file with the detailed instructions, in three-dimensional format, to be followed to carry out the knee reconstruction surgery or hip. The 3D image indicates with extreme precision how to perform the prosthetic surgery.”
«The advantages of robotic orthopedic surgery for the patient are far from negligible – continues the dr. Redi -: the robot allows us not only millimetric precision in the reconstruction of the knee or hip but also reproducibility, a less invasive intervention which for the patient translates into a faster recovery with a quicker return to daily activities and above all less surgical stress with less blood loss during the intervention».
But when is robotic orthopedic surgery recommended? «These are interventions indicated for those who have knee and hip arthritis with a significant reduction in cartilage – explains the dr. Redi -. Prosthetic surgery is used when conservative therapies have become ineffective due to very advanced stages of arthrosis.”
«In the past, prostheses lasted 15-20 years and were performed on people of advanced age while on younger ones only if the knee or hip was in a very bad state – explains the dr. Roberto Redi –. Now, however, the duration of a prosthesis is at least 30 years thanks to robotics that allows for prosthetic surgery to be performed with millimetric precision, thus guaranteeing greater stability of the knee and a longer duration of the prosthesis».
«The future of robotic orthopedic surgery – concludes the dr. Redi – will be that of its use in the most complicated cases and in the most complex interventions such as in the case of revision interventions on a worn prosthetic implant which to date is still carried out without the use of the robot”.
