Robot helps hip operations

A pilot study by Imperial College London has shown that a new surgical robot makes medical undergraduates three times more accurate during practice hip operations.

Imperial researchers will address the British Society for Computer Aided Orthopaedic Surgery Conference, reporting results from a pilot study that saw graduates 95 per cent more confident using this robotic technique than when using conventional surgical methods in training.

The pilot study tested whether planning before an operation, combined with robotic navigation equipment could increase the success rates of students practising hip resurfacing arthroplasty procedures - a method for correcting painful hip bone deformities by coating the femoral head with a cast of chrome alloy.

The Navigation Wayfinder, a navigation tool being used for the first time in the UK, works in a similar way to a GPS tracking system. It helps the user to navigate during surgery by plotting correct surgical incisions. It also calculates the correct angles for inserting chrome alloy parts needed to repair hip bones.