Knee Replacement Surgery—Improved Technology

The newest techcnique in knee replacement surgery, utilizing robotic technology, has been reported to be more successful than conventional methods. The PiGalileo TM system, developed and manufactured in Switzerland, results in lower failure rate, better leg alignment, and less likelihood of infections. The five-year findings of 1,000 robotic knee replacements were presented at the annual meeeting of the American Acadamy of Orthopedic Surgeons in March 2010 by Mercy Medical Center in New York. Mercy is ranked among the top hospitals in the United States for knee replacement surgery by HealthGrades®, the country's leading independent health care ratings company.

In conventional knee replacement surgery, a long rod must be inserted into the bones of the leg to determine proper alignment of the artificial knee. This procedure often leads to complications. The newer robotic technique eliminates all this, as it mechanically positions the knee with the highest degree of accuracy.

All of the 1,000 surgeries (100%) resulted in proper alignment within three degrees. Conventional methods achieve only 50% to 80%. Furthermore, final post-surgical alignment averaged just under one degree (0.8) using the robotic technology. Conventional surgeries also result in one to five percent of infections, but there were only two-tenths of one percent (.02%) infections with the robotic method. The failure rate for early knee surgeries with conventional methods is three to eight percent per year, but at Mercy Hospital there were no early failures at all over the five years of study. Only a handful of facilities in the United States are performing the robotic surgery at this time.

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