The knee is a hardworking joint. While you’re walking, crouching, or even standing still, your knee depends on a well-tuned system of bones, ligaments, cartilage, muscles, and nerves. If an injury, arthritis, or another condition affects any of the parts of your knee, you may need a knee replacement surgery.
Precision is vital in these procedures. The more exact a surgeon’s measurement tools, the better they can plan and perform your surgery.
Cuvis Robotic Knee Replacement Technology assists our surgeons in highly precise partial or total knee replacement surgeries. These innovative technologies take into account each person’s unique anatomy for the best possible.
What is Robotic Knee Replacement?
A robotic knee replacement is different to a traditional knee replacement. The difference is that it’s done with assistance from a robotic arm.
Robotic-assisted procedures allow for greater precision and can lead to shorter recovery times and better results. In more complex cases, a robotic-assisted knee replacement offer a better balance in the soft tissues around your knee, and better align the joint.
If you’re having a robotic-assisted knee replacement surgery, you don’t have to prepare any differently than you would for a conventional surgery.
Who is a Candidate for Robotic Knee Replacement?
If you are a candidate for traditional knee replacement, it is likely you are a candidate for robotic-assisted knee replacement, as well. It is important that you talk with your doctor to see if surgery – or other non-surgical options to treat knee pain – are best for you.
Robotic knee replacements are ideal for even the most complex knee joint disease. This includes patients who have:
- Deformities in the femur after an injury
- Complex degeneration
- Hardware from previous surgeries
Ligament-Sparing Options
The knee’s four ligaments contain special nerves that send the brain information about how your leg is moving and its position in space. This helps your body with movement, acceleration, balance, and more.
In a conventional knee replacement surgery, one or two of these ligaments must be removed. While this doesn’t impact pain after surgery, it can impact how an artificial knee feels after recovery.
A small number of orthopaedic surgeons—including several at Penn Orthopaedics—can perform traditional knee replacement surgeries that preserve all four ligaments. With the added precision and accuracy from the robotic-assisted knee replacement system, however, this type of surgery is available to more patients than ever before.
No other health system or practice in the Philadelphia region offers a ligament-sparing total knee replacement.
Ligament-sparing knee replacements are recommended for patients who:
- Are highly active
- Have healthy bones before surgery
- Have well-functioning ligaments before surgery