Does the use of Robotic Technology Improve Surgeon Ergonomic Safety during TKA?

3 pages•Published: October 26, 2019

Laura Scholl, Emily Hampp, Vincent Alipit, Antonia Chen, Michael Mont and Anil Bhave

Abstract

Surgeon physical stress in the operating room is a known potential cause of musculoskeletal overuse injuries, specifically in surgeons who perform total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Injuries have been attributed to ergonomically challenging postures. This study compared surgeon lower back and shoulder posture between manual TKA (MTKA) and robotic assisted TKA (RATKA).
Two surgeons performed a total six MTKA and six RATKA on a set of cadaveric knees. Movement and EMG sensors were secured to each surgeon to monitor lower back and shoulder movements, as well as muscle activities. Data was analyzed and activities were assessed as low, medium, or high risk, providing a score between 0-lowest and 16-highest. Risk data was compared between MTKA and RATKA for three separate surgical tasks: 1-bone cut preparation & cutting (MTKA = placement of cutting jigs, bone cutting, RATKA = array placement, bone registration, bone cutting), 2-knee balancing and 3-trialing.
Overall, there were more high-risk shoulder than lower back activities in MTKA and RATKA. More high-risk movement and EMG stimulation were measured in the dominant shoulder than the non-dominant. When lower back and shoulder data were combined, highest risk task was bone cut preparation & cutting (MTKA: 13 vs. 6 vs. 6 and RATKA: 11 vs. 8 vs. 6), with a higher risk for MTKA than RATKA.
Poor posture can be a potential cause for surgeon work-related injuries. This study evaluated which tasks presented highest risk to surgeon ergonomic safety while performing TKA, and found lower overall ergonomics risk for performing RATKA vs. MTKA. Although this study provides data indicating reduced ergonomic risk with RATKA, additional studies in the operating room need to be performed.

Keyphrases: robotic assisted tka, surgeon ergonomics, surgeon safety, total knee arthroplasty

In: Patrick Meere and Ferdinando Rodriguez Y Baena (editors). CAOS 2019. The 19th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery, vol 3, pages 322-324.

Links:	https://easychair.org/publications/paper/62mV
	https://doi.org/10.29007/xjjm

BibTeX entry

@inproceedings{CAOS2019:Does_use_Robotic_Technology,
  author    = {Laura Scholl and Emily Hampp and Vincent Alipit and Antonia Chen and Michael Mont and Anil Bhave},
  title     = {Does the use of Robotic Technology Improve Surgeon Ergonomic Safety during TKA?},
  booktitle = {CAOS 2019. The 19th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery},
  editor    = {Patrick Meere and Ferdinando Rodriguez Y Baena},
  series    = {EPiC Series in Health Sciences},
  volume    = {3},
  publisher = {EasyChair},
  bibsource = {EasyChair, https://easychair.org},
  issn      = {2398-5305},
  url       = {/publications/paper/62mV},
  doi       = {10.29007/xjjm},
  pages     = {322-324},
  year      = {2019}}

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