UHDB chosen as one of handful of NHS trusts to use innovative new robot for orthopaedic surgery
University Hospitals of Derby and Burton (UHDB) has been selected as one of only a handful of hospital trusts in the UK to welcome the use of a state-of-the-art new robot to carry out certain joint replacement procedures.
The new technology, called the Stryker MAKO robot, is now being used by surgeons at Royal Derby Hospital and so far has been used in around 25 cases.
The Trauma and Orthopaedics teams are no strangers to using robotic surgery and have done so in different ways for the past 15 years, while general and urological surgeons at UHDB also carry out procedures with the Da Vinci robot. However, Steve Milner, Clinical Director of Trauma and Orthopaedics at UHDB, says this new technology is a real coup for the Trust and helps to vastly improve the surgery patients receive.
He said: "The MAKO robot has the potential to improve the accuracy of joint replacement surgery, particularly in complex cases."
As part of the robot’s introduction to routine practice, RDH has been selected to participate in a national collaborative study (RACER) commissioned by the National Institute for Health Care Research (NIHR) to evaluate outcomes following robot assisted joint replacement.