What follows are highlights from these studies:

Use of Imaging to Identify Alignment Issues in Pre-Pubertal Children After ACL Reconstruction

A new multi-center prospective study from researchers at HSS evaluated two specialized surgical reconstruction techniques commonly used to treat ACL injuries by restoring knee stability while minimizing risks of growth disturbances in children with open growth plates (skeletally immature) and more than two years of growth remaining.

Researchers compared changes in lower extremity alignment among 112 pre-pubescent patients (girls younger than 12 and boys younger than 14) who had either a physeal-sparing combined intra/extra-articular reconstruction with iliotibial band (ITB) autograft (77 patients) or an all-epiphyseal reconstruction (35 patients). All patients had x-rays taken before surgery and again one year after surgery to measure and compare growth changes in both legs.

They found that approximately 25% of children in the study developed subtle postoperative changes such as differences in leg length and angular deformity that could raise their risk of reinjury in the future. However, there were fewer growth disturbances among older patients who had less than two years of growth remaining. 

“It’s important to make people aware that even though these procedures are safe overall and designed to respect the growth plates, there is still a risk of kids experiencing alignment issues afterward,” says Peter D. Fabricant, MD, MPH, pediatric orthopedic surgeon at HSS and senior author of the study.

An ACL injury is a painful tear or sprain of the ligament connecting the femur (thighbone) to the tibia (shinbone). These injuries have become common among physically active children, especially with year-round participation in sports and an increased level of competition.

In adult patients, the standard ACL reconstruction technique involves drilling tunnels in the femur and tibia to secure a new ligament. For children who are still growing, the growth plates—where the bones grow and gain length—are exactly where the surgeon would need to drill those tunnels. That is why alternative surgical techniques have been developed that reconstruct the ACL and minimize damage to the growth plate in young patients.

“If you injure the growth plate in a younger child who has many years to grow, there’s a lot of time during which that growth plate can grow abnormally,” explains Dr. Fabricant. “Prepubertal patients are the most vulnerable population for growth plate injury, so this study focused on that subset of patients to determine the incidence of developing deformity after surgery.”

This is the first multicenter study to rigorously assess leg alignment before and after surgery and compare the surgical leg to the uninjured leg to identify and monitor postoperative growth disturbances. Such changes may not be reliably measured with clinical examination alone.

“This study gives evidence to support the use of imaging to routinely check a patient’s alignment before surgery, check it after surgery, and monitor these kids for growth disturbances so that we can intervene in minimally invasive ways while they are still growing,” explains Dr. Fabricant. “This is important because only checking alignment when there is a concern is very subjective and there may be missed opportunities for early intervention.”

One minimally invasive surgical technique used to correct alignment issues is called implant-mediated guided growth. This involves placing implants around the growth plate that guide it to grow in a way that encourages realignment. The technique avoids the need for a much bigger operation (osteotomy) to realign the bone and a lengthy recovery, as would be the case for an adult.

“You can only do guided growth surgery when the growth plate is still actively growing, which for some of these kids is only a year or two after their surgery,” explains Dr. Fabricant. “If you aren’t routinely imaging to monitor alignment and you don’t realize it in time, then you’re beyond that window of being able to do that minimally invasive surgery.”

Use of Imaging to Identify Alignment Issues in Adolescent Children With Open Growth Plates After ACL Reconstruction

A second study led by researchers at HSS found that 15% to 30% of adolescent patients who had ACL reconstruction with soft-tissue autograft developed changes in leg alignment, but no patients developed growth-related complications requiring intervention.

For adolescent patients who still have open growth plates and less than two years of growth remaining, ACL reconstruction with soft-tissue autograft is often the technique of choice. This procedure involves drilling tunnels in the bone that would be similar to an adult ACL reconstruction, but the surgeon uses a graft and implants that don’t typically affect the growth plate.

“Even though this procedure is largely safe for adolescents, there is still a possibility of alignment changes after surgery,” notes Peter D. Fabricant, MD, MPH, pediatric orthopedic surgeon at HSS and senior author of the study. “This study adds more evidence to support the need to take x-rays before and after surgery and monitor this population until they reach skeletal maturity.”

The prospective multicenter study included 99 patients (50 boys and 49 girls with a median age of about 14 years) who had less than two years of growth remaining and underwent a primary transphyseal ACL reconstruction with soft-tissue autograft. Researchers used x-ray imaging before surgery and one year after surgery to measure and compare differences in leg alignment.

“We know that leg alignment is a vital factor in predicting injury, reinjury, and surgical failure, so measuring alignment preoperatively is extremely important because you gain the opportunity to address alignment issues at the same time as the ACL surgery with no additional risk,” explains Dr. Fabricant.

For example, if a patient is found to have a borderline alignment issue before surgery, some surgeons may be encouraged to perform an implant-mediated guided growth surgery at the same time as the ACL reconstruction because they know that there is a risk of potentially worsening post-operative alignment if they don’t.

“The logical next step is to strongly consider intervening on alignment problems when necessary in order to prevent reinjury,” says Dr. Fabricant.

TKA, also known as total knee replacement, is one of the most common elective surgeries in the United States, with over 700,000 cases performed each year. In spite of advances in surgical techniques and antibiotic regimens, infection following TKA remains a devastating complication that has led to a greater focus on controllable risk factors.

“Historically, it’s been said that the higher a surgeon’s volume, the lower the rate of infection, and the corollary is that low-volume surgeons are considered to have a higher risk of infection,” says senior author Geoffrey H. Westrich, MD, hip and knee surgeon at HSS. “We wanted to take a closer look at this historic paradigm to determine if surgeon volume independently affects infection outcomes at a high-volume orthopedic center that places great importance on infection prevention.

“At HSS, we perform thousands of joint replacements each year and we have an incredibly robust infection prevention program that has resulted in infection rates that are among the lowest in the nation,” Dr. Westrich continues. “However, the biggest problem with infection research is that because our rates are so low, it’s hard to isolate the impact of individual surgeon volume from the many institutional factors that influence outcomes.”

The researchers conducted a retrospective review of prospectively collected data at HSS that included all TKA procedures (33,747) performed between January 1, 2018, and December 30, 2024. A total of 52 surgeons were stratified by annual TKA case volume into three categories: low (<50 cases/year), high (50–250 cases/year), and ultra-high (>250 cases/year). Infection outcomes, including superficial surgical site infections (SSI) and deep periprosthetic joint infections (PJI), were monitored for 90 days postoperatively using a dedicated surveillance program in accordance with National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) criteria.

The study found the low-volume group had an average operative time of 112.2 minutes, a PJI rate of 0.3%, and an SSI rate of 0.2%. The high-volume group had an average operative time of 96.5 minutes, a PJI rate of 0.3%, and an SSI rate of 0.1%. The ultra-high-volume group had an average operative time of 90.5 minutes, a PJI rate of 0.2%, and SSI rate of 0.1%. Despite differences in operative time, there were no statistically significant differences in infection rates across the three surgeon volume groups with respect to both SSI and PJI.

Dr. Westrich notes that infection rates for TKA across the surgeon volume groups are extremely low compared to other hospitals in New York State. “Our HSS  infection rates, which range from 0.1% to 0.3%, are among the lowest in the New York State and in our country,” he says. “At other New York State hospitals, infection rates can be as high as 2.0% or ten times higher than our institution.”

“Our findings demonstrate that at a high-volume academic orthopedic center, infection rates following total knee replacement remain uniformly low regardless of individual surgeon volume,” says Dr. Westrich. “This flies in the face of what we’ve been told historically about surgeon volume and infection rates. It’s not just the surgeon, it’s the institution that drives safety.”

“At HSS, controlling the risk of infection is among our highest priorities and most important accomplishments,” explains Dr. Westrich.  “Our low infection rates are achieved with a robust infection-control committee, extensive patient education, state-of-the-art operating rooms, infection-reducing surgical practices, enhanced sterilization methods, and highly disciplined infection-control practices. Together, these factors outweigh the volume of the individual surgeon.”

To improve patient safety and quality care at orthopedic centers, Dr. Westrich emphasizes the importance of strengthening institutional infrastructure and quality-improvement programs, rather than limiting low-volume surgeons’ access to TKA.  “Our study shows that even if you bring a surgeon on staff who is just starting out in their career, that doesn’t mean a patient going to that surgeon is at a greater risk of infection.  A rigorous, comprehensive approach to patient care with relentless focus on infection control at every stage provides the greatest protection from infection.”

Authors:  Josef Jolissaint, MD; Andrew Thomson, BA; Alexandra Grizas, MPH; Andy Miller, MD; and Geoffrey H. Westrich, MD

The first of the three studies, “Aspirin Versus Potent VTE Chemoprophylaxis (VTEC) in Total Knee Arthroplasty: Reduced Postoperative Pain and Complications with Aspirin Use,” examined the experience of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) patients with postoperative pain who were also taking blood thinners. The study included 28,169 patients treated between 2016 and 2023; 18,413 received aspirin while 9,756 received a potent VTE.. Patients were monitored for 90 days following their procedure. The findings suggest that aspirin should be considered the preferred option for reducing postoperative pain in TKA patients.

Patients on more-potent blood thinners tend to experience more pain, swelling and inflammation after surgery, said Brian P. Chalmers, MD, a hip and knee surgeon at HSS and one of the study’s authors. “We have always known that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications can improve patients’ swelling and inflammation after surgery. However, the traditional thought and belief has been that we should avoid those in patients on anticoagulation. Our data show there is less risk and less postoperative pain when these patients are utilizing aspirin.”   

A second study, “The Effect of Concomitant Use of Potent Anticoagulation and Anti-Inflammatories on Early Outcomes of Total Hip Arthroplasty,” retrospectively evaluated 5,881 total hip arthroplasty patients who were on anticoagulation. The surgeries were performed between 2016 and 2023; of those patients, 4,867 were concomitantly prescribed NSAIDs and 1,040 received anticoagulation alone. Researchers concluded that the concomitant use of NSAIDs in patients on anticoagulants did not increase the risk of wound-related bleeding complications.

“The conventional thinking has often been that patients on an anticoagulant should not be on an NSAID, that there is going to be bleeding, more risk of wound problems and additional complications. But based on our retrospective data, we did not see increased risk in patients using both anticoagulation and NSAIDs. We did see some additional benefits, including less pain and a somewhat easier recovery,” Dr. Chalmers stated. “NSAIDs appear to be safe in this setting and may help decrease postoperative pain and reduce opioid use following surgery.”

The final study, “Cefazolin and the R-1 Side Chain: Why Your Joint Arthroplasty Patients With Cephalosporin Allergy Can Safely Be Given Cefazolin,” assessed the safety and effectiveness of the antibiotic Cefazolin in patients with documented cephalosporin allergies. This is the first study to evaluate these questions.

From 2016 to 2024, researchers compared patients with a reported cephalosporin allergy who received perioperative cefazolin with those who received alternative antibiotic prophylaxis. This study included 89,993 hip and knee arthroplasty patients. Of these, 1,267 had a documented allergy. The study resulted in zero incidence of IgE-mediated or “severe” type IV allergic reactions, concluding that cefazolin can be safely administered to most patients with an existing cephalosporin allergy.

“When patients have a mild allergic reaction, there is often a reflex to give them another antibiotic in a different family of drugs. However, alternative options aren’t always as effective,” said Matthew S. Austin, MD, hip and knee surgeon at HSS and a study author. “Clear protocols should be put in place to guide decision-making when managing these types of allergies.”

These findings underscore HSS’s ongoing commitment to challenging conventional assumptions and using data-driven research to refine perioperative care. The studies highlight how targeted medication strategies can improve safety, reduce complications and enhance outcomes for patients undergoing hip and knee arthroplasty.

Study Details 

“Aspirin Versus Potent VTE Chemoprophylaxis in Total Knee Arthroplasty: Reduced Postoperative Pain and Complications with Aspirin Use”

 Alex Anatone, Alexis Gabriel Gonzalez, Richard Hwang, David Andrew Kolin, Aaron Ira Weinblatt, Amar S Ranawat, Alejandro Gonzalez Della Valle, Brian Chalmers

“The Effect of Concomitant Use of Potent Anticoagulation and Anti-Inflammatories on Early Outcomes of Total Hip Arthroplasty”

Alexis Gabriel Gonzalez, Aaron Ira Weinblatt, Agnes Cororaton Jones, Stephen Lyman, Richard Hwang, Alex Anatone, Carlo Marega, Alejandro Gonzalez Della Valle, Brian Chalmers

“Cefazolin and the R-1 Side Chain: Why Your Joint Arthroplasty Patients With Cephalosporin Allergy Can Safely Be Given Cefazolin”

Josef Jolissaint, Katherine E Mallett, Andrew Thomson, Alberto V Carli, Matthew Austin

Wishing to give back to HSS for the care he received and inspired by how building Legos provided comfort and purpose during his own recovery, Devin hopes the sets he creates will encourage young patients and lift their spirits.

He came up with the idea one day while recalling his stay at HSS after surgery. “I shared a room with a boy my age who had cerebral palsy,” Devin explained. “He told me that he had 11 surgeries throughout his life. I thought about how Legos could help patients like him who are facing boredom, a lack of purpose, and other challenges, just like Legos helped me in my own recovery.”

To obtain used Lego donations, Devin and his mother posted a request in a Facebook Moms group. Boxes of Legos containing thousands of bricks—many random pieces—came pouring in! He uses an app that gives him ideas to create kits with 50 to 100 Lego bricks.

Patient Antonia Marotta of Long Island was pleasantly surprised to receive Devin’s gift at Lerner Children’s Pavilion this week. “It makes me feel great; it was really nice. Recovery can be really hard, so having something to do makes it a lot easier,” said 15-year-old Antonia.  

Antonia’s mother, Laura, was moved by Devin’s thoughtful gift. “The donation means a lot to us because the days are long here, so it’s been great to have something to pass the time,” she said. “But I think more importantly, it means a lot more coming from someone that actually sat in this hospital in this bed and really understands what it feels like to go through something like this.” 

Devin’s Injury

The Connecticut teenager suffered one of the worst knee injuries imaginable during a long jump event, tearing all four ligaments and dislocating his knee. After complex reconstructive surgery at HSS, the accomplished high school athlete faced a long and challenging recovery. His parents had an idea: could assembling Legos provide a welcome diversion, even comfort him? It worked!

“Building those huge Lego sets kept my mind sharp and kept my spirits up,” Devin explained. Unable to drive, play sports, work, or go places with his friends, he says the activity gave him a purpose during his 10-month recovery.

Referred to HSS for “One of the Most Challenging Surgeries”

After his injury, Devin and his parents consulted with several orthopedic surgeons in Connecticut. Due to the difficult surgery involved, he was referred to Dr. Anil Ranawat, Chief of Hip and Knee Preservation of the Sports Medicine Institute at HSS in New York City. “The surgeons we had consulted before Dr. Ranawat said it was a rare and complicated case, and they didn’t feel comfortable doing the surgery,” explained Jennifer Crowley, Devin’s mom.

“Tearing all four knee ligaments is one of the most devastating sports injuries someone can have,” Dr. Ranawat explains. “It is also one of the most challenging reconstructive surgeries to perform because you’re working around the nerves and arteries in the knee that must be protected.”

Dr. Ranawat performed what orthopedic surgeons call an “around the world surgery,” reconstructing all the ligaments in Devin’s knee. It took seven hours in the O.R.    

After his successful surgery, they kept in touch with phone calls and texts if Devin had a question in between doctor visits. “Devin was a phenomenal patient, he worked really hard. We became like friends,” Dr. Ranawat said. “It’s important to develop trust with your patients; you build a bond with them.”  

When Devin wanted to try the high jump wearing a brace after many months of rehab, Dr. Ranawat asked Devin to send him videos so he could monitor his progress. Now recovered, Devin recently broke his own record for the sport.  

A “Pass the Bricks” Ambassador

Devin is an ambassador for “Pass the Bricks,” a national nonprofit organization whose volunteers collect discarded Lego sets and parts to repurpose and rebuild them for kids who may not have access to the toy. Designing and assembling sets from random Lego bricks is painstaking work. In between schoolwork and applying to college, Devin says he is happy to devote the time needed if he can brighten the day of young patients at HSS.

First introduced in the late 1800’s, the procedure, called knee osteotomy, involves cutting and reshaping the shinbone or thighbone to relieve pressure on the knee joint. It was initially used as a common treatment for arthritis and later for various orthopedic conditions and injuries, but it became less popular with the advent of the modern knee replacement in the 1970s. Nevertheless, surgeons continued to use and refine the technique. Today, the approach is used to fix bowleg deformity and prevent the need for knee replacement surgery, which carries a higher risk of complications particularly in people under age 50.  

Bowleg deformity is an incorrect alignment around the knee that can affect people of all ages. The many causes of bowleg syndrome range from illnesses such as Blount’s disease to improperly healed fractures and vitamin deficiencies.

Patients who had knee osteotomy reported positive outcomes and significant improvements in quality of life, according to a comprehensive review of the literature on the technique that was led by Anil S, Ranawat, MD, Chief of the Hip and Knee Division of the Sports Medicine Institute at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS). High patient satisfaction rates included less pain, better movement, and very few complications after the surgery, which helped delay or avoid the need for knee replacement in the vast majority of cases. The results are being presented at the AOSSM annual meeting.

“The development of new technologies, such as digital software planning, advanced CT imaging, and other patient-specific tools, is enabling us to resolve patients’ knee pain and preserve their knee function for a longer period of time,” explains Dr. Ranawat. “This modern evolution of an old operation has helped us tailor these procedures so that they are done in the safest, most precise way possible.”

Osteotomy is no longer a one-size-fits-all approach. “These improved outcomes were made possible by the advent of patient-specific instrumentation (PSI), in which a surgeon uses a patient’s CT scan and digital software to do a virtual surgery and plan the ideal operation tailored to the individual’s anatomy and needs,” explains Dr. Ranawat, an expert in joint restoration and preservation.

The development of knee replacement surgery in the 1970s caused surgeons to recommend knee osteotomy less frequently, however younger patients under age 50 tended not to do well with it due to high rates of infection and other complications. In addition, knee replacements have a life span of about 15 to 20 years, so younger patients often need a second operation when their knees fail.

“New patient-specific technologies have revolutionized the safety and precision of osteotomy, even more than knee replacement, so now if we do an osteotomy on a 25- or 30-year-old, the operation could last 40 years,” says Dr. Ranawat. “This is why joint preservation has been our goal at HSS over the last two decades. We are taking a much more proactive approach to offering knee osteotomy in younger patients to ideally avoid knee replacement altogether.”

HSS has been a thought leader in knee osteotomy for many years and is using all different forms of modern technology to improve surgical precision and patient outcomes. Dr. Ranawat and his colleagues will continue to build on the benefits of PSI, integrating the latest tools and technology to redefine joint preservation.

“We want our younger patients to know they don’t have to live with pain or rush into a knee replacement,” said Dr. Ranawat. “This is about preserving function and quality of life for the long haul. Incorporating artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced imaging will lead to smarter PSI systems​ and open the door to robotic-assisted surgeries that could revolutionize knee osteotomy in the future,” he says.

“It is an honor to have one of the top professional organizations in the field of regional anesthesia and pain medicine highlight the collaborative work of our department's Pain Prevention Research Center,” said Alexandra Sideris, PhD, director of the Pain Prevention Research Center at HSS. “The award reflects our dedication to innovations in patient care and underscores the greater scientific community's acknowledgement of our efforts.” 

More than one million people undergo knee replacement surgery each year in the United States, and those numbers continue to rise, Dr. Sideris notes. “There is a need to better understand patients’ individual pain trajectories, and one of the most exciting approaches is to leverage artificial intelligence. With our huge patient database at HSS, machine learning can analyze factors such as age, gender, BMI, and presurgical pain levels to predict which patients are at greater risk of severe pain after surgery,” she said. Armed with this information, the care team can tailor personalized pain management plans to meet patients’ needs. 

The HSS researchers had several goals: utilize machine learning to identify pain archetypes following total knee replacement; determine important features for predicting pain outcomes; and classify patients at risk of severe pain in the immediate postoperative period. The retrospective study included 17,200 patients who had total knee replacements at HSS from April 1, 2021, to October 31, 2024. 

“Using unsupervised machine learning, we identified two distinct pain archetypes in patients who underwent total knee replacement, which corresponded to those who experienced severe, difficult to control pain after surgery and those whose pain was relatively well controlled,” explained Justin Chew, MD, PhD, a clinical fellow at HSS who presented the study at the ASRA meeting on May 1. “We then utilized supervised machine learning to determine the most significant predictive factors for severe pain. In our study, risk factors included younger age, greater physical/mental impairment, higher BMI, and preoperative opioid or gabapentinoid use.” 

Dr. Sideris notes that ongoing and future studies at HSS will continue to leverage AI with the goal of improving patient outcomes. While the award-winning study focused on the immediate postoperative period, she said additional studies will follow patients’ pain trajectory and recovery over longer periods of time to determine which strategies doctors can employ before surgery, intraoperatively and in the immediate postoperative period to manage pain in high-risk patients. 

Reference: 
Classification and stratification of patient pain archetypes following total knee arthroplasty: a machine learning approach 
Justin Chew, MD, PhD, Junying Wang, Alexandra Sideris, PhD, Victoria Xu, Daniel Maalouf, MD, MPH, Stavros Memtsoudis, MD, PhD, MBA, Jashvant Poeran, MD, PhD, Jiabin Liu, MD, PhD. 

“Young athletes gain enormous health benefits from participation in team sports, and as sports medicine physicians, we strongly encourage athletic activity. However, we have seen a concerning increase in knee injuries involving the anterior cruciate ligament, commonly called the ACL. Adolescents playing team sports that require cutting maneuvers or a sudden change of direction, such as soccer, basketball, football and lacrosse, are most vulnerable. Research suggests that the risk of non-contact ACL injury can be dramatically reduced through neuromuscular training — the adoption of various exercise and conditioning strategies that improve movement and allow athletes to change speed and direction with greater strength and body control," explained Dr. Fealy. 

The article appeared in the print issue on August 21, 2024.

“We have found that robotic assistance leads to improved implant positioning, alignment and ligament balance, which enable us to better replicate the patient’s natural anatomy,” said David J. Mayman, MD, chief of the Adult Reconstruction and Joint Replacement Service at HSS. “With our vast registry of patient data and strong commitment to research, HSS is in a unique position to continue leading the evolution of robotic assistance in the operating room.”

The first study found that the use of a surgical robot during total knee replacement surgery reduced the need for manipulation under anesthesia (MUA), an outpatient procedure that may be prescribed when physical therapy (PT) after surgery becomes too painful for the patient due to joint stiffness caused by scar tissue. During the course of care, approximately 3.5% of knee replacement patients undergo MUA, according to Seth A. Jerabek, MD, hip and knee surgeon at HSS and co-author of this study, typically within 90 days of their surgery. After MUA, patients are typically better able to participate in PT and progress in their recovery.

Investigators at HSS set out to determine if the use of computer navigation or robotic-arm assistance during surgery reduced the need for MUA. Previous studies have shown that the use of either tool leads to a more precise knee replacement.

The HSS researchers conducted a retrospective chart review of 21,893 knee replacement surgeries performed between April 2008 and December 2022. They found that the use of the robotic arm or computer navigation led to a significant decrease in the number of patients who needed MUA after surgery (2.7% of patients with robotic-assisted surgery; 2.8% of patients whose surgery was performed with computer navigation; 3.7% of patients whose surgery was performed without either technology).

“These results highlight the potential benefits of incorporating technological advancements into knee replacement surgery, offering improved outcomes and reducing the need for additional interventions such as MUA,” Dr. Jerabek said.

The second study compared short-term outcomes of the anterior versus the posterior approach in robotic-assisted total hip replacement (THR) surgery. “There is no consensus on which approach has a lower risk of postoperative complications,” said Elizabeth B.  Gausden, MD, MPH, a hip and knee surgeon at HSS and principal investigator of the study. “This can often lead to confusion on the part of the patient as to which approach may be best for them. Our objective was to compare rates of dislocation, re-operation, revision and patient-reported outcome measures of each approach performed with robotic assistance.”

Dr. Gausden and colleagues identified 2,040 consecutive robotic-assisted THRs for osteoarthritis in the HSS patient registry between 2017 and 2020. A total of 497 hip replacements were performed using the anterior approach; 1,542 were performed with the posterior approach.

At mean follow-up of 18 months, the researchers found no difference in the rate of dislocation, re-operation or revision surgery between the two approaches. At early follow-up of six weeks, the anterior approach was associated with a somewhat faster functional recovery. By 3 months following the THA, there were no longer significant differences between patients who had different approaches. “The take-home message is that hip replacement has excellent outcomes with each respective approach when performed by surgeons with extensive experience in that approach,” Dr. Gausden said. “While the goal of the study was not to compare robotic THA to manual THA, it is likely that the very low incidence of instability or dislocation overall can be attributed to the use of robotic technology for planning and execution.”

"As the use of robotic assistance in joint replacement surgery becomes more common, future studies should evaluate outcomes over longer periods of time,” concluded Dr. Mayman. “As a leader in the use of this technology, HSS continues to study various robotic systems to acquire the data needed to provide the evidence-based care that will benefit our patients.”  

References:

Robotic-assisted Total Knee Arthroplasty Is Associated with Decreased Manipulation under Anesthesia Compared to Manual Approach

Authors: Cale Pagan; David J. Mayman, MD; Douglas E. Padgett, MD; Jonathan M. Vigdorchik, MD; Peter K. Sculco, MD; Seth A. Jerabek, MD; Theofilos Karasavvidis, MD (HSS).

Program Number: P153 – February 14, 2024

Comparison of Short-Term Outcomes Between Direct Anterior and Posterolateral Approach in Robotic-Assisted Total Hip Arthroplasty

Authors: Nikhil Vasireddi, MHA (Case Western); Sonia Chandi, MD; Colin Neitzke; Agnes Cororaton, MS; Jason L. Blevins, MD; Jonathan M. Vigdorchik, MD; Alexander S. McLawhorn, MD, MBA; Elizabeth B. Gausden, MD, MPH (HSS).

Program Number: e076 – February 12, 2024