After practically three years of knee issues, Jane Burmester determined it was time to have a alternative fitted. Her knees had been riddled with arthritis, locking up and always collapsing, each step left her in immense ache.
“The ache would make you’re feeling such as you had been going to faint.”
Now, in August, not even two years later, she’s set to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and cycle the 800km Camino de Santiago (the Means of St James).
In November 2020 the 55-year-old from Waimauku, Auckland, had a robotic complete knee alternative, with Velys robotic expertise.
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Robotic assisted knee surgical procedure isn’t new – the nation’s first robot-assisted knee surgical procedure occurred at Auckland’s North Shore Hospital, in 2017.
In Burgemester’s case, the surgical procedure was carried out by surgeons, not robots. However as an alternative of standard hand-held instruments, the surgeon managed the robotic to place knee alternative joints in precisely the precise place.
Six weeks post-op, she was again on her bike and utterly ache free, she mentioned.
In March, she summated Mount Taranaki and regardless of 5 hours of utmost climbing, mentioned her knees induced her “no ache in any respect”.
Jane Burmester/Equipped
Robotic knee surgical procedure gave Jane Burmester a brand new lease of life, pictured right here climbing Mt Taranaki, after the alternative.
Burmester was the primary ever scientific trial affected person for this specific kind of expertise.
In March, the robotic assistant was used for the primary time exterior scientific trials, at Mercy Ascot Greenlane Hospital in Auckland. The process had since been signed off and is now supplied to the general public.
Over 150 procedures have been accomplished with the robotic since Burmester’s.
Auckland orthopaedic knee surgeon Dr Mark Clatworthy assisted with the event of the robotic and was the primary on the earth to make use of the expertise.
He mentioned as compared with different knee robotic surgical procedure assistants, the brand new expertise was smaller and extra superior.
David White/Stuff
Mark Clatworthy is an orthopaedic surgeon in Auckland, he developed and operated the newest robotic knee assistant.
“Its like evaluating a 2015 automobile, with a 2020 automobile to some extent.”
The important thing advantage of the robotic was that it allowed the surgeon to individualise the knee joint alternative, enabling the surgeon to tailor the alignment of the knee alternative to the affected person’s anatomy, permitting for extra correct bone cuts, he mentioned.
Clatworthy mentioned the expertise was a step in direction of a extra personalised world of medication.
“Crucial factor is that we’re in a position to personalise it to every affected person.”
He mentioned the event of the robotic was a protracted, however “massively rewarding” course of.
Two different Velys robots had been additionally in operation throughout New Zealand, one at Southern Cross Hospital in Hamilton and one in New Plymouth.
