If you have been paying attention lately to the buzz coming from our office, you’ve already heard us talk about how proud we are to be one of the first clinics in our region to offer robotic-assisted surgery with ExcelsiusGPS. Robotics give our surgeons a powerful tool for improving accuracy in spinal screw placement, resulting in lower risk and better patient outcomes. That said, as robotic-assisted surgery becomes more common, it begs the question: What sets ExcelsiusGPS apart from other spine surgery robots? Don’t they all essentially do the same thing?
The short answer to that last question is yes — they basically accomplish the same goal. The real differentiator is how well they accomplish it. Polaris has chosen ExcelsiusGPS because its advanced technology enables it to outperform most other robotic surgical systems by a significant margin.
All robotics use some form of mapping based on images of the patient’s anatomy. However, the ExcelsiusGPS takes this mapping even further with real-time navigation technology that works similarly to the GPS on your car, except with far greater precision.
Any robotic system can help a surgeon pinpoint an exact location for screw placement, but those calculations don’t necessarily account for the patient’s natural movements on the table. Mapping remains motionless; the patient cannot. This is where GPS technology comes in. Once the patient’s medical imaging has been uploaded to the system and placement locations identified, the robot’s navigation technology monitors the patient’s natural body shifts and movements and recalculates placement positioning in real time to match them. Ultimately, this means the final placement of the screw will be based on the patient’s actual positioning, not an anatomical image of the patient.
How does navigation technology improve accuracy rates? While robotic-assisted surgery has an accuracy rate of placement of about 98 percent overall, a study involving multiple surgeons using ExcelsiusGPS resulted in a 100 percent accuracy rate in the placement of 160 pedicle screws.
When accuracy rates improve by these margins, the additional benefits begin to multiply to the patient’s advantage. As a result, surgical procedures performed with ExcelsiusGPS result in the following:
At Polaris Spine & Neurosurgery Center, we are committed not only to providing our patients with a wide range of options for treating back, leg and spine pain, but also to providing the highest possible quality of care. That is why we proudly utilize the most advanced spine surgery robot on the market today. To learn more about the advantages of ExcelsiusGPS or to discuss whether you may be a candidate for robotic-assisted surgery, give us a call at 404-256-2633.