The advanced integrated robotic system for spine surgery, introduced by Delhi-based BLK-Max Super Specialty Hospital, has been designed to increase the safety and accuracy of spine surgery and provides support to the spine surgical suite where precision and accuracy are key factors for best outcomes.
Addressing media persons on “India’s most advanced integrated robotic system for safe spine surgery” here at Eden Medical Centre, senior director and head of orthopaedic spine surgery department of BLK-Max Super Specialty Hospital Dr Puneet Girdhar shared the benefits and working system for safe spine surgeries.
He said that the AI-aided robotic system for spine surgeries was the most advanced software platform designed to increase safety and accuracy of spine surgery, adding that it provided support to spine surgical suite where precision and accuracy were key factors for best outcomes.
Dr Girdhar said the technology used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to visualise spinal anatomy during complex surgeries where data integration was done, which come in handy during spinal surgeries, allowing doctors to customise their surgical plan for each individual patient. He also mentioned that the integrated spinal robot was programmed to navigate spinal surgeries.
He claimed that this was the only robotic system that combined surgical navigation and robotic guidance for spinal surgery, which offered significant advantages to spine surgeons, noting that robotic surgeries made surgical procedure more objective.
Girdhar further stated that medicines were very advanced now and considered the robotic spinal surgeries as the safest route for procedures that required extreme precision and accuracy. He asserted that this not only promised positive outcomes but also involved minimal complications throughout the surgery. With regard to safety and positive effects of robotic spinal surgery, the doctor mentioned that the fear psychosis of paralysis during spinal surgeries was also done away with. Due to the precision provided by robotic technology, he pointed out that even the blood loss was minimal, allowing successful minimal invasive technique during spinal surgery.
He opined that robotic-assisted surgeries significantly improved surgical outcomes of complex surgeries due to its advanced level of precision, pointing out that complications due to mal-placement of screws could be now avoided completely by placing screws accurately and faster with most desired outcome.
Comparing the placement of screws in a patient during spine surgery, he noted that robotic system for spine surgery was 100% accurate while non-robotic surgery secured 93% accuracy. Dr Girdhar disclosed that he had taken care of around 100 patients from Nagaland in the last one-and-a-half years. Asked about the cost difference between robotic and non-robotic spinal surgery, he replied that there was difference of around Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000. On the other hand, BLK-Max sales and marketing head, Abhinay Jain informed that the hospital would be offering 10% discount from patients from Nagaland.
Meanwhile, Eden Medical Centre managing director Dr Lima Imchen said the hospital was collaborating with New Delhi-based BLK-Max Hospital to bring specialised healthcare services to Nagaland.
He said doctors from the Delhi-based hospital were visiting Eden Medical Centre to provide consultation and treatment to patients under this partnership.
He divulged that it was also working to find ways with BLK-Max to minimise costs so that patients from Nagaland could afford the surgery at the Delhi hospital. Imchen also informed the media that the State government in collaboration with Dimapur Private Doctors’ Association was planning to implement the Chief Minister’s Health Insurance Scheme (CMHIS).