According to a report from Medical Device Network, investigators have found that robotic assistance during total knee arthroplasty may not improve revision rates. The findings were presented by Kirchner et al at the 2024 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting and simultaneously published in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research. In the study, the investigators used the American Joint Replacement Registry to analyze the outcomes of a total of 9,220 cementless total knee arthroplasties among patients aged 65 years and older—45% of which were performed with robotic assistance—between January 2017 and March 2020. After a follow-up of 2 years, they found that robotic assistance did not significantly impact the risk of revision as a result of infection or mechanical loosening. “Some patients desire a robot-assisted [total knee arthroplasty] because they’ve heard it is better, but we’ve shown that there isn’t a true benefit in terms of the likelihood or needing another surgery in the early period,” concluded senior study author Lucas Nikkel, MD, Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
April 30, 2024