Classically, in the hip and knee reconstruction world, we have seen more geriatric patients, people in their 70s and 80s.
But with this new generation of active people that don’t want to give up that lifestyle, we’re seeing more people in their 30s, their 40s, and their 50s with arthritic issues or traumatic issues that may need and benefit from hip and knee reconstruction.
We can use the robot in both hip and knee reconstructions. What the robot allows us to do is to accurately plan the procedure even before the patient arrived to the operating room. And therefore, once we have an ideal plan, we’re able to execute that plan in the operating room with the assistance of the robot.
So now with current technology, we do our measuring down to one-half millimeter to one-half of a degree as far as the way we place components into people. So that measures basically out to 20000 of an inch. So that’s accuracy we’ve never had before.
Physical therapy is a key element in hip and knee reconstruction. We start physical therapy within hours after surgery. So it’s not uncommon that our patients are walking within an hour after surgery. A great deal of our patients are able to go home the same day.
