Robotic navigation during spine surgery

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Potential complications associated with screw malposition may result in neurological deficits or vascular injuries. Spine surgery has significantly developed under the assistance of technological progress. The advantages of applying robotic technology in spine surgery include the possibility of improving screw accuracy, reducing complications, decreasing fluoroscopy use.

Areas covered: We critically evaluated the current literature on the radiographic and clinical outcomes of robotic-assisted spine surgery, including accuracy, radiation exposure, operative time, and complication rates.

Expert opinion: Robotic-assisted spine surgery shows promising results and has the potentials for further investigations. The robot-assisted spine surgery is appeared to be more accurate in pedicle screw placement than the free-hand technique. In general, the robot-assisted technique is associated with shorter radiation exposure time but longer operative time than free-hand technique. For higher accuracy of robotic-assisted spine surgery, technical advancement and high-quality researches are needed. Artificial intelligent technology, decompression function, and higher accuracy are the directions for the development of robotic-assisted spine surgery.

KEYWORDS:

• Robotic
• spine surgery
• accuracy
• clinical application
• outcomes
• review

Article highlights

• Robotic-assisted spine surgery shows promising results and has the potentials for further investigations.

• The robot-assisted spine surgery is appeared to be more accurate in pedicle screw placement than the free-hand technique.

• The robot-assisted technique may be associated with shorter radiation exposure time but longer operative time than free-hand technique.

• Continued technical innovation is required to improve the robotics in spine surgery.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was funded by Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality under Grant Z170001; National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant U1713221.