Hilton knee surgeon celebrates special milestone
In the past 10 months, specialist orthopaedic surgeon, Dr James Mcallister, has done 100 knee replacement surgeries using the latest in cutting edge technology.
Celebrating the milestone at Life Hilton Hospital recently, he said the Mako robotic-arm was helping him to provide a more accurate and less invasive surgical procedure for his patients.
“This machine allows us to put knee and hip replacement prostheses in very accurately,” he added. “We think that, over time, by putting them in accurately, that patients will have better outcomes and the longevity of the joint will be increased. I say, think, because it hasn’t been around long enough yet to see.”
Using a replica knee joint, he showed Public Eye how a knee replacement works.
“When the knee is arthritic, you get damage of the cartilage all the way round; you get bone rubbing on bone and that causes pain,” Mcallister said.
“When we do a knee replacement we shave off the bone and cartilage and a prosthesis is placed in the space.
“You need to keep the ligaments intact to keep the knee stable … those ligaments have to be balanced so there is equal force on both sides of the replacement. What the robot does is help us accurately measure the distance between them so we can balance it perfectly.
“Previously, when we were doing the surgery manually, that was where the surgeon’s skill came in.
“There are a lot of very skilled surgeons who get it right most of the time. The robot makes us get it right more than most of the time … it allows us to be much more accurate.”
Before surgery, the team at Midlands Orthopaedics do CT scans of the patient’s knee or hip to create a 3D model.
“We do the planning virtually on the computer and the plan is then implemented in theatre, after a couple of tweaks, which we do while the patient is asleep and the knee is open,” Mcallister said.
“The application is what allows us to individualise treatment because it’s that patient’s specific scan that we can manipulate.
“Once we are happy, the robotic-arm comes in and I do the cuts with the robotic-arm guiding me where I must cut the bone. Then we put the prosthesis in. I haven’t had one yet where it hasn’t cut it perfectly to the way we have planned it.”