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In recent years, robotic technology has made a powerful impact on orthopedic surgery.

As this technology evolves, it is increasingly accepted that it is not an advertising or decorative method for a surgery, but in essence a new tool that has completely changed knee arthroplasty as an operation.

Today, it is very important for patients undergoing total or partial knee arthroplasty to feel after the operation that their knee is functioning in an almost normal way. This was not entirely possible in the past because with the mechanistic concept of joint replacement, in other words, the removal of the arthritic part of the joint and the replacement of the space and surface with a mechanism resembling a rectangular parallelepiped, this was not possible.

Personalized Functional Kinematic Arthroplasty

Now, with the help of robotic technology, we have the ability to apply the completely modern concept of knee arthroplasty, which is called personalized functional kinematic arthroplasty. This means that the surgeon does not simply replace the joint, but respects its particular anatomy and functionality, which is certainly different for each person.

Robots, and specifically the ROSA robot, which we have at the Inter-Balkan Medical Center of Thessaloniki, has the ability to preoperatively record the functionality and kinematics of each patient’s knee.

It also has the ability to record the deformation of the knee joint that the patient has suffered due to arthritis during the operation. The two above information are recorded dynamically in time and space during the operation. Thus, the surgeon has the ability in a dynamic and functional way not only to replace the joint but to restore it to where it will work best for the specific patient.

Robotic technology undoubtedly helps in this new knee arthroplasty procedure and will undoubtedly be the future of arthroplasty in the coming years. Often, ambiguous or even negative opinions are heard about robotic technology.

Fear of new technologies is often justified and causes stress in doctors because it changes the way the operation is performed and requires the development of new skills. However, the literature is now extremely strong regarding the advantages presented by robotic personalized functional kinematic knee arthroplasty.

At the Robotic Orthopaedic Surgery Clinic of the Inter-Balkan Medical Center of Thessaloniki, we have performed more than 500 knee arthroplasties with the robotic method of personalized functional kinematics. The results of these operations over a period of more than 4 years and compared to non-robotic operations have already been published in the international literature with excellent results. Our results are also presented at international medical conferences and confirm, together with the announcements of other pioneering colleagues from around the world, the superiority and diversity of robotic knee arthroplasties compared to non-robotic operations of the previous generation.

Robotic surgeries are safe, present less trauma during the surgery, respect the tissues and bone due to high precision, personalize the surgery 100% and provide the possibility of recorded control of the result which is also delivered to the patient if he/she wishes at the end of the surgery. Also, the planning and execution of the surgery are identical but also dynamically change during the surgery for the benefit of the patient and based on the personalized perception of medicine.

Finally, we should emphasize that new technologies despite being a huge development in the execution of medical operations and especially robots in the execution of knee arthroplasty, should nevertheless be performed by doctors of high technical ability with very great experience and specialization in the subject of arthroplasty surgeries.