Becker’s Spine Review reports that researchers at HSS found minimally invasive, robot-assisted surgery for pars fractures enabled most adolescent patients to return to sports in as little as six weeks.

The retrospective study focused on nine nine adolescent patients with lumbar spondylolysis who had robot-assisted pars repair at HSS using the single-screw technique, according to a Nov. 16 news release. After surgery they were in an eight-week physical therapy program to reintroduce them to sport-specific exercises.

Five patients returned to the same level or higher of sports after a mean follow-up of 11.4 months. One patient had residual back pain, and three had CT scans at 12 months showing union of the fracture.

Read the full article at beckersspine.com.