New robotic-assisted device used in spinal surgery - UW Medicine | Newsroom

New [...]

Media Contact: Susan Gregg - 206-390-3226, [email protected]

As new technology and equipment get released in the medical field, doctors at UW Medicine are doing their part to use them.

Dr. Richard Bransford is an orthopedic surgeon at UW Medicine who specializes in spine and back procedures. He has performed surgeries with a robotic-assisted device.

“We've been using navigation and spine surgery for a while, but what the robot allows us to do is to very precisely find that angle and navigate that angle,” Bransford said. “The robot arm can kind of tell us where to place that screw, which the study suggests is a more accurate, and therefore more effective, tool.”

The robot was recently used to treat a patient with degenerative disc disease. Bransford used the robot to treat the patient’s spine.

“With the navigation attached to it, you can use percutaneous (minor) incisions. So, we don't have to use the big wide-open exposure (to spinal structures),” he added.

Such minimally invasive spine surgeries reduce tissue trauma and pain, compared with open-field surgeries. This typically improves patients’ recoveries.

Bransford said he is continuing to learn about the robotic device’s potential applications and hopes to train other doctors to use it.

“What this means for Harborview is that not only can we ideally do a better job taking care of patients, but also to train our medical students, residents, fellows, the next generation of surgeons,” Bransford said.

Download broadcast-ready soundbites and related multimedia with Bransford.

For details about UW Medicine, please visit http://uwmedicine.org/about.